Department of Radiotherapy ❯ Cancer Sites


How does Radiotherapy Work?
Radiation therapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses ionizing radiation to destroy cancer cells. It may be used as the primary therapy or combined with surgery or chemotherapy. It works by damaging the DNA of cancer cells using high energy X-rays (photon) or electron.

Unfortunately, radiation also damages the surrounding normal cells simultaneously; resulting in radiation induced side effects. Cancer cells grow and divide more rapidly than normal cells. Since radiation is more harmful to rapidly growing cells, it damages cancer cells more than normal cells. In addition, normal cells are able to recover from radiation damage better than cancer cells. Each time radiation therapy is given, it involves a balance between destroying the cancer cells and sparing the normal cells.