Radiation therapy to treat cancer involves the use of radiation. What is radiation? The emission or transmission of energy through space or a material medium in the form of waves or particles is known as radiation. High-energy radiation such as radiation from x-rays has the ability to change cells. This is the reason radiation therapy is highly effective in the treatment of cancer. Radiation therapy can relieve symptoms caused by advanced cancers and completely cure early stage cancer. Also, this treatment can be used for nearly all types of cancer.
To damage cancer cells, radiation therapy uses a specialized high-energy beam. Invisible to the naked eye, the high-energy beams used in radiation therapy damage the DNA of a cell. Though the high-energy beams used in radiation therapy may damage some normal cells during the treatment process, they are generally good at targeting cancer and killing only cancer cells. Also, since healthy normal cells are more organized than the cancer cells, they are better able to repair themselves and survive the radiation therapy.
The goals of radiation therapy
Overseeing radiation therapy is the job of radiation oncologists. Radiation therapy involves a specific number of treatments provided over a specified period of time. Slowing tumour growth and destroying cancer cells without causing any harm to nearby healthy tissue is the goal of this cancer treatment. The process of radiation therapy to treat cancer involves the use of radiation therapy to treat the main cancer followed by the use of another treatment called adjuvant therapy to target and kill any remaining cancer cells.
Apart from treating cancer, radiation helps to shrink tumours and minimize pain, pressure and other symptoms caused by cancer. When cancer is not fully curable, the aforementioned radiation treatment known as palliative radiation therapy is used. This therapy aims to improve the life of the cancer patient. Some form of radiation therapy is what more than half of the people with cancer receive. Some cancers can be effectively treated using only radiation therapy though using radiation therapy in combination with other treatments is preferred by most medics. Treatments used in combination with radiation therapy may include chemotherapy, surgery or immunotherapy.
The importance of radiation therapy
As it has the ability to minimize the chances of cancer recurring after surgery, radiation is rated highly as an anti-cancer therapy. While a surgeon may remove the cancer, he or she cannot guarantee that every cancer cells has been removed from your body. As they are extremely small in size, individual cancer cells cannot be detected by testing or felt/seen during surgery. Any cells that remain can grow and eventually cause cancer again.
Since research proves that radiation is better than surgery or other cancer treatments at completely eliminating cancer cells, using it to treat cancer is a sensible thing to do. The two types of radiation therapy you can benefit from include external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) and Brachytherapy.
