Hi All,
I believe it is unusual; and not a direct result of RT.
I suffered haemerroids during my RT, with significant bleeding (fortunately only when going to the loo)
I had not suffered from them before but I am fairly sure that they already were in situ, so to speak and the reason why erupted into prominence was solely due to my over-enthusiastic take-up of the bowl-emptying regime.
It was quite worrying at the time, you look in the pan and start thinking in terms of litres of blood but in reality it's much less and easily staunched
You automatically imagine that the bleeding is caused by the RT so while it's always worth investigating, it's a relief to know that it's not.
Update.
The problem with the piles persisted on and off. The GPs attitude was that it was something that I would have to live with. However, I subsequently mentioned it to my oncologist and he referred me for a colonoscopy as he suspected it might be radiation proctitis.
Good result, the consultant offered to 'band' the piles on the spot and he proceeded with excellent results although he warned that they can only band a couple at a time and I am now awaiting a return visit.
As a bonus (?) I got to have the colonoscopy, which,
(a) Confirmed the presence of haemorrhoids
(b) Confirmed traces of radiation proctitis (which seems to come with the territory and not something that I should be unduly concerned about)
(c) No evidence of colon cancer (there was never any reason to think this was likely but it's nice to be able to tick something else off the list.)
So my opinion for what it's worth is that folk shouldn't be put off of RT as this is not a normal side-effect of the treatment.
Dave