Cancer radiation therapy is a very important part of treating cancer today. It is a fact that almost half of all cancer patients being treated will undergo radiation as a part of their cancer treatment. It is therefore essential to understand what cancer radiation therapy involves, how it is utilized to treat cancer, what the side effects are and how to successfully deal with them.
What is radiation and how does it help
Energy carried by a stream or waves of particles is called radiation. This can alter or change genes and molecules of a cell. Thus, cancerous cell genes can be damaged by radiation inhibiting their growth and division. Therefore cancer radiation therapy is generally used to destroy cancer and shrink cancerous tumors in the body.
This type of radiation works better on cells that are active and quickly divide than on cells that are inactive or resting or slow dividing stage (in the G0 stage). Cancer cells usually divide very quickly and are uncontrollable. Radiation therapy kills these cells but also affects tissues of normal dividing cells, causing side effects. Thus every time a patient undergoes cancer radiation therapy the treatment involves a balance between sparing the healthy cells and destroying the cancerous ones.
This types of Cancer takes days or even weeks before the cancerous or normal cells begin to be killed and sometimes they even die months after the treatment has ended. This is the reason for side effects that are long-term in nature. Though at first it was believed that radiation therapy for cancer could not be given to a particular area more than once on account of the damage to healthy cells, recent study and research shows that a second cancer radiation therapy course can be administered in the treatment area for some cases.
Types of Radiation are:
• Ionizing radiation that can kill and destroy cells and change genes to stop cancer cells from growing. These are of two types:
1. Photons (gamma and x rays)
2. Particle radiation (protons, neutrons, electrons, alpha and beta particles)
The more energy this radiation has, the deeper it can penetrate the tissues. The right type of radiation is selected by a "radiation oncologist".
• Non-ionizing radiation which involves Radio waves, Light waves and Microwaves that do not have that much energy and is unable to ionize cancer cells
Common sources of treatment are:
• High-energy photons: These come from sources like cesium, cobalt, a linear accelerator etc. This is the most common treatment used today.
• Particle beams: These are produced by a linac (linear accelerator). Also, known as electron beams, they are utilized for cancer tumors that are not deeply embedded in tissues but are close to the surface.
• Proton beams: A new form of particle beam radiation. Protons do not cause a lot of damage to normal tissues as they penetrate but kill cells in their path. Thus they cause few side effects while delivering more radiation to cancer cells.
• Neutron Beams: Used for the prostate, neck and head they are helpful when other cancer radiation therapy does not work.
Some of the major side effects of cancer radiation are extreme fatigue, skin damage and discoloration, throat and mouth problems. When certain areas like the brain, lungs are treated, then the side effects can vary and range from memory loss to nausea and vomiting.
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