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

Generally, radiation treatment focuses ionizing radiation into a narrow beam and directs it to the tumor along a path that transits the least amount of healthy tissue possible. By targeting a tumor from multiple directions in successive exposures, you maximize the radiation that passes through just the tumor while minimizing the radiation that any other specific area of healthy tissue receives.

Hitting the tumor from multiple directions is the key to minimizing adverse effects from radiation on surrounding healthy tissue.