What’s wrong with stomach pain after radiotherapy for cervical cancer?

Some cervical cancer patients often have abdominal pain after radiotherapy. If this happens, first of all, we should clarify the cause, because abdominal pain is a common kind of pain in daily life, such as gastrointestinal diseases, indigestion and adnexitis, etc. can cause abdominal pain. Abdominal pain caused by radiotherapy can be divided into early abdominal pain, which occurs during or soon after treatment, and is commonly seen in cervical cancer combined with pelvic infection and gastrointestinal reaction caused by radiotherapy, etc. The cause should be clarified and treated symptomatically, such as pelvic infection, which is often combined with local infection in cervical cancer patients and aggravated during radiotherapy or detected during radiotherapy. Infection has obvious influence on the effect of radiation therapy and can reduce the effect of radiation therapy. Active prevention and treatment are needed after symptoms appear and antibiotics need to be given. Gastrointestinal reactions caused by radiotherapy mostly occur during external irradiation, especially abdominal irradiation, which has more effects on the gastrointestinal tract. Lack of appetite, nausea, or even vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea and other symptoms often occur, and symptomatic treatment is given in mild cases, while the radiation schedule needs to be adjusted in severe cases. Late onset of abdominal pain commonly occurs six months after radiation therapy, such as radioactive damage to the small intestine, which can lead to intestinal fibrosis, causing intestinal adhesions, ulcers, strictures and even obstruction, with clinical manifestations of abdominal pain, diarrhea, blood stools, etc., and radioactive proctitis. It usually appears within six months to two years after radiation treatment, and most patients can expect to recover within one year, often manifesting as pain such as internal urgency, anal drop, mucus stool or even blood stool. Radioactive damage to the intestine is difficult to treat and is mainly symptomatic.