There is a lot of information on lingering or late-developing side-effects from prostate cancer radiation, as it's such a common cancer and gets a lot of attention. Typically, there is nerve and blood vessel damage which is not present when the treatment itself ends but gradually develops over 2-3 years, sometimes with unwelcome effects such as erectile disfunction or bladder control issues. But increased use of IMRT has started to reduce these side-effects. One rather scary paper came out last year, in which the rate of bladder cancers in men receiving brachytherapy (in form of permanent seeds) was 2x that of men who were not treated BUT the actual rate (%) of patients affected was very small -- like a change from 1% to 2% -- so not a reason to refuse treatment.

As Brian says, everyone is different both biologically and in how their body responds to both the treatment and the cancer itself. Optimism has been shown (in actual double-blind studies) to improve HNC patient's outcome after treatment significantly.

Gail