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

I had testicular cancer in 2003 and when i got bowel cancer in 2019 the nurses said they thought it was most likely the radiotherapy treatment from the first bout that caused it. They see lots of cases but sadly, the data hasn’t been collected historically in such a way that we can learn from it so all we have is anecdotal knowledge from their experience.

Also noted a link between depression and cancer too but again. No supoorting data yet.