How Is Low-Dose Radiotherapy Used To Treat Chronic Pain?

Radiotherapy is commonly seen as a curative treatment, used in targeted high doses to treat conditions such as cancer, tumours or sarcomas.

However, low doses of radiation are also often used to treat non-malignant diseases and help manage chronic pain disorders with a series of painless, quick, unobtrusive treatments.

It is provably effective and safe for many people, but how does it work and what types of conditions can it help treat?

How Does Low-Dose Radiotherapy Work?

Broadly defined, low-dose radiotherapy is any type of radiotherapy designed to alleviate symptoms and manage pain rather than cure a disease or destroy a tumour.

Whilst it can and often is used as part of palliative cancer care to relieve symptoms rather than treat the disease, it can be used to take care of a wide range of conditions which are caused by inflammation, pressure or the stiffness of joints.

Low-dose radiotherapy is still highly targeted, but due to the lower doses of radiation does not take as much time in the treatment centre, nor does it have the same side effects.

Typically, a low-dose radiotherapy treatment takes seconds and is almost always painless. If there is an expectation of pain as part of the response to treatment, your radiotherapist will explain it to you, but that tends to be rare, and recovery is very quick.

It is also a relatively old treatment; for as long as radiotherapy has existed at all, it has been used to help relieve certain non-malignant conditions such as lupus as early as the late 1890s, and low-dose X-ray therapy has been widely used in Austria and Germany for decades to help ease pain.

How Is Radiotherapy Used To Treat Arthritis?

One of the most widespread and effective uses of low-dose radiotherapy is in the treatment of osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis in Austria and other parts of Europe.

There are various types of osteoarthritis, which can cause pain, sensitivity, swelling and noticeable sounds when moving joints, but if they are causing particular issues with mobility or day-to-day living, radiotherapy might be an option.

It is typically recommended if other more conservative treatments have not been effective. Light exercise, physiotherapy, resting or topical medications are often recommended or prescribed for a few months, but if they are not helping to ease symptoms, radiotherapy may be the best option.

It is typically provided in six to eight targeted low doses over two to three weeks in sessions that last less than ten minutes each. The radiotherapy itself takes less than a minute and can, in some cases, take less than ten seconds due to the low doses and lower risk involved in their use.

We specialise in using low-dose radiotherapy to treat osteoarthritis in the hip, knee, shoulder, finger and thumb joints, in order to ease pain, relieve swelling, reduce pressure and improve their range of motion.

What Else Can Low-Dose Radiotherapy Be Used For

Besides reducing osteoarthritis, it can be used to help with shoulder, elbow and forearm pain, relieving soreness in areas of the arms with larger amounts of soft tissue, as well as treat a range of benign, non-malignant but nevertheless still uncomfortable diseases.

Prophylaxis For Gynecomastia

This includes its use as a prophylaxis to reduce the risk of developing gynecomastia, a disorder where men develop larger breasts, typically caused by hormonal imbalances.

It is typically used before hormone therapy to make it more effective in reducing symptoms and preventing the development of breast tissue, as well as relieving pain around the chest.

Reducing Keloid Scars

Some people are at an increased risk of developing keloid scars, where a thicker, larger scar grows over a wound, which can be itchy or painful whilst it is growing and potentially affect joint movement depending on where it grows.

It cannot be removed by surgery, as that creates a bigger wound and potentially a bigger scar, but radiotherapy can help once the scar has been surgically removed in order to keep it away, particularly if cryotherapy, laser therapy or steroid treatments cannot be used.

Ledderhose And Dupuytren’s Disease

A condition caused by the thickening of connective tissue, the differences between Dupuytren’s disease and Ledderhose disease are that the lumps and nodules grow on the palm or on the base of the foot, respectively.

Radiotherapy can help in the early stages to stop the nodules from growing and avoid the need for surgery on the hand or foot should the condition continue to progress.

It is primarily effective during the proliferation phase as a complement to physiotherapy, massages and exercises.