How Is Radiation Therapy Used to Treat Cancer?

Cancer is a deadly disease to deal with. However, radiation is a treatment that truly helps to manage it. Radiation therapy is a non-invasive way of removing cancerous and precancerous cells. A low dose of radiation is used so that it causes no damage to any nearby healthy tissue. The radiation is in the form of high energy that is absorbed by cancerous cells as compared to healthy cells. This causes the death of these cancerous cells and may even prevent the growth of new cancerous cells.

What Is Radiation Therapy? 

Radiation therapy uses a high beam of rays to kill cancer cells. This kind of treatment can be used alone or in combination with chemotherapy or surgery. While it may sound intimidating, radiation therapist is generally very safe. The radiation is aimed at the cancer cells only, so most healthy cells can’t be damaged. On the other hand, in chemotherapy, the whole body gets affected by the treatment. The specialist who does radiation therapy is called a radiation therapist. 

When Is Radiation Therapy Used? 

A radiation therapist is used for treating both benign tumours and malignant tumours. The therapy is typically used when other treatments like chemotherapy and surgery have failed. During radiation therapy, doctors use high-energy rays to kill cancer cells and stop them from spreading. 

How Is Radiation Used to Treat Cancer? 

Radiation therapy uses a beam of high rays to directly attack the cancer cells to destroy them completely or reduce their growth period. The therapy takes a week to slowly kill these cells, and then the body flushes out the damaged DNA cells. People with cancer usually receive this therapy to ease the pain and symptoms that come with cancer.

There are two types of radiation therapy: External and Internal. 

• External radiation therapy is used outside the body using radiation machines. These machines work by pointing a direct beam at the infected cancerous part of the body. For example, if there’s a tumour inside your stomach, the radiation is directly pointed towards the tumour to destroy it. 

• In internal radiation therapists, cancer is treated using a medicine that’s sent into the patient’s body in the form of capsules and syrups, which travels throughout the body passing through body cells. 

Which Type of Radiation Do Patients Receive?

Depending on several factors, a patient receives the appropriate type of therapy. The factors include:

• Type of tumour 
• Age of the patient 
• Patient’s medical history 
• Complications of the tumour 
• Stage of the tumour 
• Location of the tumour
• Medical complications 
• Type of treatments to be performed before the radiation therapy 

Moreover, not all patients require to go through several treatments before radiation; some patients may be needed to undergo radiation therapists directly based on their cancer stage and medical condition.

Conclusion

While radiation therapy helps fight cancer by destroying the cancer cells, it still has some after-effects of the treatment, like difficulty in swallowing foods. Therefore, a completely healthy diet is recommended by doctors. Consider undergoing treatment from the best cancer doctor in India, who can help you fight cancer by advising the right treatment plan. We hope the above information was helpful for you to understand what radiation therapists are and how it is used to treat cancer.