Radiation therapy is one of the most common cancer treatments that uses radiation to kill cancer cells. In this type of therapy, you can use it independently or alongside other treatments like surgery or chemotherapy. Radiation oncologists are healthcare providers who specialize in radiation therapy.
Your radiation oncologist will determine whether radiation therapy will benefit you. If so, they’ll determine the best type of radiation therapy for the kind of cancer you have. They also design the radiation treatment plan with the radiation dosage that will destroy cancer cells without harming nearby healthy tissue.
Remember, they will certainly know more about the radiation side effects before commencing this treatment procedure. It is worth mentioning that there are two types of radiation therapy, i.e., external beam radiation therapy and internal radiation therapy. Both types work by destroying a cancer cell’s DNA.
Without DNA instructions telling them to grow and multiply, cancer cells die and tumors shrink. External beam radiation therapy is the most common type of radiotherapy you’ll have to make do with. With this type of therapy, a machine directs beams of high-energy radiation toward the tumor. The energy may be X-rays, electrons, or protons. Precision is important with this type of therapy.
Your radiation oncologist will design a treatment plan to target the tumor with radiation while avoiding your healthy tissue. Things tend to be different with internal radiation therapy since it places radiation inside of your body closer to cancer cells. It treats smaller tumors in your head, neck, breast, cervix, uterus, or prostate. You can receive internal radiation through a solid source or in liquid form.
You might wonder, why is radiation therapy used? Well, it is highly relied upon because it kills cancer cells, shrinks tumors, and relieves cancer symptoms. It may be the only treatment or it may be used to shrink tumors before other cancer treatments, destroy any remaining cancer cells after surgery, or kill cancer cells that return after previous treatment. Radiation therapy can also destroy benign tumors causing symptoms. In select cases, providers may also use low-dose radiation therapy to treat certain conditions.
All in all, you need to be aware of the different radiation side effects before commencing on this type of treatment. Luckily, your oncologist will let you know about this way in advance before you finally get to commence the treatment.
