Radiotherapy is a very effective way of easing the pain that bone secondaries from breast cancer can cause.

Often only a single treatment, lasting 5 to 10 minutes, is all that is needed, although sometimes longer courses may be necessary.

The treatment itself is usually done as an outpatient and involves lying on a special bed, under the radiotherapy machine. It is quite painless and you don't feel anything.

The doses of radiation used in treating bone secondaries are relatively low and generally the side-effects are not usually very troublesome. Depending on which bone, or bones, are being treated, and which area of the body is irradiated, there may be a risk of some sickness (nausea and/or vomiting) during the 24 hours after treatment. If your doctors think this is likely they will normally tell you and give you some anti-sickness tablets to try and prevent the problem. Apart from maybe a little temporary tiredness. Other side effects are uncommon.

One point that should be mentioned is that the treatment doesn't work immediately - it is usually 7 to 10 days before you notice any improvement and anything up to 4 to 6 weeks to get the full benefit from it. Therefore you will probably need to continue taking your regular pain killers during the period immediately following the radiotherapy.