What is the difference between radiation therapy and chemotherapy in cancer treatment?
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are both treatments for cancer – the uncontrolled growth and spread of cells to surrounding tissues. Chemotherapy, or “chemo,” uses special drugs to shrink or kill cancer cells. Radiation therapy, or “radiation,” kills these cells with high-energy beams such as X-rays or protons.
Can cancer patients survive radiation?
When the damaged cells die, they are broken down and removed by the body. Radiation therapy does not kill cancer cells right away. It takes days or weeks of treatment before DNA is damaged enough for cancer cells to die. Then, cancer cells keep dying for weeks or months after radiation therapy ends.
Is radiation treatment worse than chemo?
Radiation therapy involves giving high doses of radiation beams directly into a tumor. The radiation beams change the DNA makeup of the tumor, causing it to shrink or die. This type of cancer treatment has fewer side effects than chemotherapy since it only targets one area of the body.
What is bad about radiation therapy?
The most common early side effects are fatigue (feeling tired) and skin changes. Other early side effects usually are related to the area being treated, such as hair loss and mouth problems when radiation treatment is given to this area. Late side effects can take months or even years to develop.
Which is better chemotherapy or radiation therapy?
It does appear that radiation would be better, but the advantage of chemotherapy is that the medications which are used are very specific to that individual’s disease. Doctors are able to select a combination of medications based on how far along the cancer has gotten, where it is located and so forth.
Which is worse radiation or chemotherapy?
Nevertheless, chemotherapy comes with more severe side effects than radiation because all of the cells in the body may be affected by the drug being used; radiation therapy targets only specific areas of the body affected by cancerous cell growth. Common side effects of chemotherapy include nausea and hair loss,…
Are chemotherapy and radiation the same thing?
The main difference between chemotherapy and radiation is that chemo uses one or more medications in the treatment of cancer and radiation uses radio waves for the same purpose. Chemotherapy combines chemicals which kill cancer cells that are delivered intravenously to the patient. Radiation involves the use of radio waves, which also kill cancer.
Is radiation better than chemo?
Radiation therapy tends to be easier on the body than chemotherapy. It applies a special beam of x-rays to specific areas where cancer is present with the goal of destroying the cancer cells there. This treatment can be more effective in cases where the radioactive beam can be focused on the specific areas of cancer growth.
