PharmD Info

My doctor advised to me to undergo radiation therapy before initiating chemotherapy. Why radiation therapy is important ? Will it damage my normal cells too?

Radiation Therapy works by making a small break in DNA inside the cells and These breaks keep cancer cells from growing and dividing and cause them to die.
Radiation therapy works for cancer patient
Radiation therapy is usually a local treatment. This means it’s usually aimed at and affects only the part of the body needing treatment. Radiation treatments are planned so that they damage cancer cells with as little harm as possible to nearby healthy cells

At higher doses radiation therapy kills cancer cells or slows their growth by damaging their DNA .Cancer cells whose DNA is damaged beyond repair stop dividing .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.

Radiation therapy kills cancer cells or slows their growth by damaging their DNA. Radiation therapy (also called radiotherapy) is a cancer treatment that uses high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors.

Radiation therapy is important because radiation therapy shrink tumors and kill cancer cells.

Radiation not only kills or slows the growth of cancer cells, it can also affect nearby healthy cells. Damage to healthy cells can cause side effects.