What are long-term effects?
There may be some long-term skin changes. Many women heal well and you cannot tell that they had had radiation treatment, but some women do experience a change in skin color, either a darkening of the skin or a lightening of the skin. Sometimes, people will develop spider veins. The other potential side effect is that radiation therapy can add to the risk of lymphedema. Lymphedema risk also depends on the type of surgery. A full dissection, meaning removal of as many lymph nodes as possible, may put this patient at higher risk for developing lymphedema than the patient with a sentinel node biopsy in which one to five lymph nodes are removed.
