Hi. Is hoarse voice normal symptom after radiotherapy? My mother ended breast radiotherapy in September and in the last 2 weeks she developed hoarse voice. I would like to ask if this is normal or maybe this is rather something more serious? My mother has doctor visit in March and she doesn’t want to go earlier.
Thank you for all you answers.
Hi
It depends on the sites where your mother had radiotherapy, based on my own experience. I had treatment to three sites - the left side, the full front and the collar bone (to clear the central lymph nodes just in case). It was the last that gave me a hoarse voice, which developed slowly over a few months, as do many after-effects of radiotherapy. It hasn’t gone away - I get hoarse and eventually lose my voice during prolonged speaking, like a chatty phone call, I need to clear my throat a lot and find it harder to deal with certain foods - I always have to have water with a meal now. However, whether it’s normal to develop three months later with no earlier signs, I really can’t say.
I would advise your mum to ring her breast care nurse support line. Let them decide if she needs to be seen earlier. If there are no other symptoms (and, of course, assuming she had radiotherapy down through the collar bone - if she cant find any note on this, the bc nurse will find out), it may be that she’s been unlucky like me and many others and it shouldn’t get any worse. I regard it as collateral damage.
I hope everything is ok but, to be honest, anything that is different after successful breast cancer treatment needs to be checked out xx