How Radiation Works

Radiation works by causing damage or changes to the cells in the tumor site. Rapidly growing cells, such as cancer cells, are more sensitive to radiation damage than normal cells. For this reason cancer cells are more likely to die from radiation while normal cells are more likely to recover, repair themselves and grow.

Radiation is called a local or regional treatment because it affects only the cells in the treatment site. Since it is a local treatment the side effects from radiation will only be in the treatment site. Radiation is not like chemotherapy because it does not go throughout the body.

The goal of radiotherapy is to give a high enough dose of radiation to the tumor site in order to kill as many cancer cells as possible while still allowing the normal cells to repair and recover.