After the prescribed courses of chemotherapy, involved field radiation is usually administered. Mantle field radiation is also used in some cases. The mantle field includes the neck, chest, and sometimes the lymph nodes under the arms. Drawbacks to external beam radiation is that the radiation can severely damage nearby healthy tissue along with the malignant cells. Short-term side effects for radiation therapy include skin changes similar to sunburn, tiredness, upset stomach, or loose bowels.
Radiation therapy can also have long-term side effects.
These effects depend on the dose and location of the therapy, as well as the age of the patient at the time of treatment. These side effects may be heightened by the combination of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. In some cases, Hodgkin's Disease may become resistant to standard methods of treatment with chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Autologous, or taken from the patient and not a donor, stem cell transplantation is a newer type of treatment and may be offered as part of a clinical trial or also may be administered outside of a clinical trial. In this treatment, the patient's own bone marrow is taken out and stored.