Radiation therapy for cancer

Cancer is a very severe and chronic illness that is currently plaguing the world. Thousands of people suffer from cancer every year, and the number is growing exponentially over time. Cancer is a deadly disease that has a high mortality rate. Sometimes, when the cancer is spread to different parts of the body or cancer becomes advanced and mutates, it is almost practically impossible to save the patient’s life in such cases, with such a grim situation at the hands of the doctors and the patients. Radiation therapy is one of the few treatment options there is for cancer.

Radiation therapy uses radiation to kill the cancer cells that are inside your body. In some instances, where the tumor is too large to be operated on, radiation therapy is used to shrink the size of the tumor so it can be operated on in minimally invasive surgery. The radiation used in radiation therapy is the same one used for performing x-rays. The radiations used in radiotherapy are more powerful than the ones the patient is exposed to in case of an x-ray. Let’s take a closer look into how radiation therapy works against cancer? And at what points during cancer treatment is radiation therapy used?

How does Radiation Therapy work against cancer?

The radiation used in radiation therapy is high-powered; it kills the cancer cells inside your body by damaging the DNA of the cancer cells. This process slows the growth of cancer, shrinks the size of the tumors, and eventually kills the cancer cells inside your body to heal you from the disease. When the cancer cells are damaged by radiation therapy over and over again, they die. The dead cells are then expelled out of your body, and you heal from cancer.

It is important to understand that cancer is a complicated disease to cure and radiation therapy is not a magical tool that cures your cancer in one go. Radiation therapy is a very long process that includes weeks and months of appointments to finally damage the DNA of the cancer cells enough for them to stop replicating and die. Even after the radiation therapy sessions are over, it still takes months to get the complete result to ensure you are free from cancer.

Types of Radiation Therapy used in Cancer treatment?

• External Beam Radiation Therapy

External beam radiation therapy uses an external machine that projects radiation from different directions at any particular part of your body where the cancer cells are present. External beam radiation therapy does not expose your entire body to the radiation; it only exposes the specific region where the cancer is located. This machine can move about freely in a small field of area to project radiation to the affected area from different angles.

• Internal Radiation Therapy

In internal radiation therapy, the patient is given a solid or liquid radiation source, which is then put inside their body close to the cancer-affected area. Internal radiation therapy is also localized, and it exposes a specific affected part of your body to the radiation and not your entire body. When the radiation source is solid, the procedure is called brachytherapy, and when the radiation source is liquid, the process is called systemic radiation therapy.

Conclusion

Radiation therapy is one of the best treatment options when it comes to cancer. With the advancements of medical science, radiation therapy has become more effective in helping patients survive cancer. This treatment process has fewer side effects than chemotherapy, making it one of the best courses of treatment for cancer.