Treatment of cancer

Ionizing radiation is often used in treatment of cancer. At high doses, the radiation can kill cancer cells or slow the development by damaging its DNA. The tricky part of radiation treatment is to kill all the cancer cells without harming the normal healthy cells. Therefore the radiation must aim as much as possible at the cancer cells. Radiation treatment will not kill the cells right away. It can take a few days to weeks damaging its DNA enough for it to die. The cancer cells will continue to die after the treatment. The cancer cells DNA will be damaged beyond repair, die or stop dividing. When they die they will be broken down and removed from the body.

Today, fifty percent of cancer patients get some form of radiation treatment to kill cancer cells. There are two main radiation treatment, external beam and internal. The type of radiation treatment that a person get depends.

External Beam Radiation Treatment

External beam radiation treatment is used by a machine which sends out ionizing radiation. Multiple ionizing radiation will aim on the cancer tumour for a high radiation dose. Not only does the cancer tumour receive radiation, but also the healthy cells behind and in front of the tumour. But because it only receives radiation from one angle it does not cause much damage in contrary to the cancer tumour which receives radiation from multiple angles.

Internal Radiation Treatment

Internal radiation is done by putting or consuming a source of radiation in your body. The radiation source may be injected in your blood and the cancer tumour will receive radiation from inside your body