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Radiation Treatments for Cancer
Radiation treatments for cancer (also known as radiation therapy or radiotherapy) may be performed as the sole method for killing the cancer cells in your body or as an additional measure after chemotherapy treatments or a surgery have concluded - it all depends on the type of cancer you have and the course of treatment you and your doctor have chosen.
Radiation treatments for cancer may be performed on your body externally or internally.
External radiation therapy involves x-rays or another form of radiation being directed at specific places on your body for short periods of time over several days.
Internal radiation therapy may be given to you in the form of a liquid or by surgically placing radioactive material in or close to the cancer tumor.
Here we'll explore the answers to these questions: - What should I expect to happen during radiation treaments for cancer?
and - How do radiation treatments for cancer work? What actually happens inside my body to kill the cancer?
I'll also give you some radiation therapy survival tips and address radiation treatment side effects.
External Radiation Treatments for Cancer
Every person's experience will be slightly different, but there are common elements you can expect will happen when you go to an external radiation therapy appointment. For example, you will be either tattooed with ink or drawn on with permanent markers. You will have to allow radiation therapists (radiation's version of an oncology nurse) to twist your body into uncomfortable positions and then remain statue-like while they shoot dangerous beams of energy at your body. And you will have to take a leap of faith that these beams - completely invisible to the human eye - may actually be able to cure you of cancer. To get the full story on what to expect when you go in for radiation treatments for cancer, click here.
Internal Radiation Treatments for Cancer
If you are going to receive some form of liquid radiation to kill cancer cells, it may be given to you though an injection - or you may even drink it! Forms of liquid radiation are called "isotopes".
The other form of internal radiation treatment is a surgical implant of a radioactive material into or close to the cancer tumor. The implant may be a seed, tube, or metal wire. Depending on the material and the form of treatment, the implant may only be placed in your body for a few minutes - or it may be allowed to remain there permanently.
Radiation Therapy Education
Did you know that radiation treatments for cancer use the same radioactive beams that are used in an x-ray? And that radiation has been used to treat cancer patients for over 100 years?
So how does radiation work once it's inside your body? It's all about the cells. Your body is made up of more than 200 different types of cells. Scientists have been able to figure out how different types of cells respond to the things that we put in our bodies - food, alcohol, and radioactive energy to name a few! When radioactive energy enters your body, it kills cells - both cancer cells and healthy cells. That's the short explanation. If you want to learn more about how radiation therapy kill cancer cells, click here.
Radiation Therapy Survival Tips
I never looked forward to radiation treatments, but I did find ways to make them a little more bearable. Here are my radiation survival tips:
- If you are going to external radiation appointments, they will most likely be everyday (Monday through Friday) for several weeks...in other words, you are going to get very tired of making the daily trip to the hospital. To make it a little less monotonous, brainstorm ways to make the daily routine of your radiation treatment a benefit to you rather than an inconvenience.
For me, those few minutes every morning sitting in the waiting room before my treatment were a welcome moment of alone time. In the busy world we live in today, alone time comes at a premium, don't you agree? Take advantage of these few minutes of "found time" in the waiting room to read, write, reflect, pray, or watch the news.
- Find a way to treat yourself after each radiation appointment. I love coffee, so after each radiation treatment, I went to a nearby coffee shop and treated myself to a cup. I found that having something to look forward to immediately after the treatment was over was one of the best ways to make the radiation treatment go by quickly.
- Lotion! The radiation beams are going to really dry out the skin that they hit when they enter your body. Get a tube of one of those nice, creamy lotions out there (like Eucerin) and apply it regularly to the affected area.
- If you are having radiation therapy directed at an area near your throat, pay very close attention to this survival tip: when you feel your throat starting to swell from the radiation, start taking smaller bites of food when you eat. If you don't, you could end up having an experience like I did.
Radiation Treatment Side Effects
You'll be glad to know that the radiation therapy procedure itself is painless - you won't feel a thing when it's happening; however, there are many different side effects that you may experience. Here are a few of the most common temporary radiation treatment side effects:
- Dry skin where the radiation beams enter your body
- Swelling of the tissues affected by the radiation
- Fatigue
There are also some radiation treatment side effects that are more permanent in nature:
- Infertility (note that unless your ovaries or testicles are being directly targeted by the radiation beams, your doctor and the radiation therapists will do everything they can to avoid exposing these body parts to radiation)
- Fibrosis (essentially, your skin may lose some of its elasticity)
- Hair loss (again, this should only happen if your head is being directly targeted by the radiation beams)
- Dry mouth or dry eyes (if the tear glands or salivary glands are affected by the radiation beams)
- Cancer - go figure! Your doctor will discuss this possibility with you, but in plain terms, the use of radiation to kill your current cancer may result in you getting another cancer later on in life. Typically, the chances of getting another cancer later on in life because of radiation therapy are very slim - and so most people decide that the benefits of fighting the current cancer with radiation therapy greatly outweigh the small risk that they could get another cancer later on in life as a result.
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