Radiation Therapy

Understanding Radiation Therapy

For many people, the word “radiation” conjures up frightening images. But radiation therapy, also called radiotherapy, is an effective, carefully controlled means of fighting cancer. Although therapy can cause side effects, the treatment sessions themselves are painless. And in the skilled hands of a radiation oncologist and well-trained technologist, the side effects can be minimized. Radiation therapy is one of the most common treatments for cancer; it is used in more than half of all cases.

What exactly is it?

Radiation therapy uses beams of high-energy waves or particles (for example, x-rays, gamma rays, or alpha and beta particles) to kill or damage cancer cells. The powerful stream of energy, which is thousands of times more intense than the rays used for a routine chest x-ray, damages the DNA of cancer cells, rendering them unable to reproduce and grow. Although radiation damages both cancer cells and normal cells, normal cells are able to repair themselves and function properly.

When is it used?

Radiation therapy is the primary treatment for many types of cancer, including certain cancers of the lung, breast, cervix, prostate, testicles, bladder, thyroid, larynx and brain, as well as early-stage Hodgkin’s disease and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

In some cases, radiation therapy is the only treatment needed; in others, it is used in combination with surgery or chemotherapy. Radiation can be used before surgery to shrink a tumor so that it is easier to remove. After surgery, it is used to destroy microscopic extensions of cancerous tissue around a tumor that surgery might have missed.

Unlike chemotherapy, in which cancer-killing drugs travel throughout the entire body via the bloodstream, radiation therapy affects only the tumor and the surrounding tissue.When cancer has spread to distant areas of the body, chemotherapy is needed.