What is Radiation for Cancer Patients?

Radiation therapy, also known as radiotherapy, is a treatment for cancer that utilizes doses of radiation in an effort to kill cancer cells and either eradicate the disease in a patient or slow its progress. It can be administered in a few different ways and is used in some form in more than half of cancer patients. Often it is the only treatment that some people with cancer need to undergo, while for others it is used in addition to medications and chemotherapy.

Types

• External beam radiation therapy uses a machine that is capable of aiming the radiation at a particular area of the body. It is a large machine and can be noisy as it rotates around your body bombarding you with radiation in an effort to kill cancer cells in a specific area. Internal radiation therapy uses a source of radiation that can be placed into your body to fight cancer cells. There are various forms of it such as liquid radiation therapy and pill form, but they all have the same intent: to destroy cancer cells.

Time Frame

• Cancer cells do not immediately die during radiation therapy. It may take many treatments and then the cells will begin to succumb to the effects of the radiation after a few days or even as long as a few weeks. However they will continue to die for as long as a few months after it finally ends.

Effects

• There will be side effects that come along as a result of radiation therapy for cancer. They are largely dependant on what part of the body the cancer is being treated in. They can include such problems as diarrhea, tiredness, vomiting and nausea, and hair loss. Coughing, blurred vision, headaches and changes in your skin, throat and mouth can all be side effects of radiation therapy. Infertility is a possibility with some forms of radiation treatment, which will occur after the treatments have been discontinued for some time.

Prevention/Solution

• Healthy cells are not unaffected by radiation therapy but they usually recover from its effects. The impact on healthy cells can be minimized in some cases by using as low a dose of radiation as possible, but still strong enough to kill cancer cells. The treatments may be spaced out over time to give normal cells a chance to recover and by aiming the radiation at a specific part of the body normal cells may be spared.

Benefits

• Radiation therapy is painless for the patient. it is also a very costly procedure. It is very often used in tandem with chemotherapy, which has a tendency to magnify the side effects of both treatments. It is also beneficial when used along with surgery. Radiation therapy is often an option prior to surgery to reduce the size of tumors and afterwards to attempt to kill any cancer cells that may be left.