About - Pelvic Radiation Disease Association | HealthUnlocked

The PRDA community is a peer support group where people can ask questions and share their experiences as well as supporting each other in living with Pelvic Radiation Disease (PRD). The group is run by the Pelvic Radiation Disease Association which is a UK based, patient-led charity set up to provide information and support to people who experience PRD following cancer treatment.

PRD is a long-term side-effect (‘late effect’) affecting an estimated 100,000 people in the UK. We understand that people living with PRD can often have a complex set of symptoms which may affect their bowel, bladder, sexual and/or other functions for many years after radiotherapy. These symptoms sometimes only appearing several years or even decades after their radiotherapy treatment.

PRD is defined as one or more ongoing symptoms of variable complexity that may affect people who have previously had radiotherapy to the pelvic region to treat their cancer. This includes pelvic radiotherapy for cancers of the colon, rectum, anus, prostate, testes, bladder, cervix and womb, but also total body radiotherapy and radiotherapy in the pelvic area for other primary and secondary cancers.

Other words that are sometimes used to describe symptoms of PRD include: Radiation enteritis, Radiation proctitis, Radiation colitis, Radiation enteropathy, Radiation cystitis, Radiation cystopathy, Radiation-induced lumbar plexopathy and Pelvic insufficiency fractures.