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

A very simple analogy is sunlight with a magnifying glass. When diffuse it will apply uniformly across the region, when targeted it can become very hot. Most radiation therapy is targeted to cancerous cells with minimal impact to nearby tissue. This is either done by applying low energy radiation directly to a cancerous location internally so all energy is absorbed by the cancerous tissue, or by using multiple angles from an external beam that minimally impacts surrounding tissue, but multiplies in a single area after multiple exposures.