Contents:
- Medical Video: Cancer Treatment: IMRT (Radiation Therapy)
- What is radiotherapy?
- How does radiotherapy work to fight cancer?
- What are the side effects of radiotherapy?
- Is radiotherapy safe?
Medical Video: Cancer Treatment: IMRT (Radiation Therapy)
Cancer is still the most feared disease by most people. It is known that in the past two decades, cancer has increased by 70%. In fact according to WHO data there are as many as 14 million new cancer cases, and 8.2 million people die from cancer in 2012. However, along with the development of science and technology in the medical field, patients who have successfully recovered from cancer are also increasing.
Nearly half of cancer patients are advised to do radiotherapy in their treatment. But, usually cancer patients are afraid if they have to undergo radiotherapy, because they think that radiation is dangerous or related to nuclear, or can even make the body become radioactive. But is that true? How does radiotherapy actually kill cancer? Does radiotherapy have an adverse effect?
What is radiotherapy?
Radiotherapy is a method of treatment that relies on radiation by using high-energy waves such as x-rays, gama, protons, and electrons to kill cancer cells. Although radiotherapy is most often used to treat cancer patients, but sometimes this therapy is also used to treat non-cancer patients, such as tumors and disorders of the thyroid gland.
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How does radiotherapy work to fight cancer?
Under normal and healthy conditions, cells in the body will develop by dividing. In patients who have cancer, cancer cells also divide themselves, but in a very fast and abnormal period. This is caused by the DNA in normal cells mutating and then becoming cancer cells, so that the cells develop abnormally.
Radiotherapy works by damaging DNA that regulates the division of cancer cells, so that cells can no longer develop and even die. Normal cells can also be affected by radiotherapy, but the side effects that are caused will be lost if you have not done therapy. Unlike chemotherapy which affects all parts of the body because it uses blood flow as an intermediary, radiotherapy is a local treatment that aims to reduce the number of cancer cells without having to damage the cells and tissues around the cancer cells.
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What are the side effects of radiotherapy?
Radiotherapy can work alone in fighting cancer, but can also be accompanied by treatment of other cancers such as chemotherapy or surgery. This depends on the severity of the cancer and which parts of the body are affected by cancer. Because if radiotherapy is carried out together with other methods, the cancer cells will be easier and faster to remove from the body.
But radiotherapy does not always directly kill cancer cells or normal cells that are growing. To make it die and not grow back, it takes days or even weeks. Normal tissue that is often affected by radiation is the body's tissues that carry out continuous division, such as the skin, several tissues in the digestive system, and bone marrow. Therefore, side effects will occur some time after radiotherapy.
The most frequent impact experienced by patients taking radiotherapy is:
Skin problems. Many patients who do radiotherapy experience dry skin, itching, and peeling. This problem arose after several weeks of undergoing radiotherapy.
Fatigue. The patient will feel tired throughout the day. The level of fatigue that arises depends on how many radiation doses are given and whether to do other treatment methods or not.
Long-term impact. Most of the effects or side effects that appear will disappear by themselves when the body has made tissue repair after radiotherapy. But sometimes these side effects arise again later on.
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Is radiotherapy safe?
Yes, of course radiotherapy is safe and actually helps the medical team to eliminate cancer cells and speed up treatment. This therapy has been successfully carried out to cure cancer patients for approximately 100 years.
Radiotherapy is important to reduce the risk of future cancer recurrence. If indeed you are required to do radiotherapy as your cancer treatment, then discuss this with therapy or the medical team that handles you to find out how good preparation for radiotherapy and how many times radiotherapy should be done.
