eli5: How does radiation both cause and cure cancer? I know it can be targeted, but I still don’t understand how it’s not causing cancer at it’s target? How does chemo work? And how does chemo and radiation work together?

Question

Sorry if the flair is wrong. Biology or chemistry?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Think of it like this. There are 100 cells. 90 are good. 10 are cancer. Radiation is going in with a ln accurate but still damaging machine gun. You kill 8 cancers and kill 2 civilians. Acceptable losses. Now there are only 2 cancers and 88 good ones. Next round of radiation, you user a sniper rifle. Hit 1 cancer and only injure 1 civilian. Still acceptable losses.