Eli5 How does radiation therapy actually work? Like how doesnt it break down more of the body and make the cancer worse or something like that? And does it target only cancer area or everything?

Question

Eli5 How does radiation therapy actually work? Like how doesnt it break down more of the body and make the cancer worse or something like that? And does it target only cancer area or everything?

In: 630

Answer 1

One point not mentioned here: normal cells, when damaged by things like radiation, pause their agenda to grow/divide and focus on repairing themselves. Cancer cells typically lack the ability to pause on growth and division, will try to divide with messed up DNA, and likely tear their genome to shreds in the process. There is a certain dosage that will kill all cells, but healthy cells respond to radiation better than cancerous cells.