I have breast cancer and I’m starting radiation tomorrow. I understand that it’s supposed to reduce the risk of reoccurrence and that it is destroying cells. But how? Which cells are affected? Why will it make me tired?
In: Biology
Radiation, like platinum-based chemotherapy drugs create jumbles and breaks in the DNA of all the affected cells. Tumors, however, tend to have 2 characteristics: they replicate/multiply very fast, and they are not very good at repairing damage in their DNA.
When a cell (healthy or cancer) divides, it needs to copy its entire DNA. If it finds damages, it needs to be repaired. If the damage is too big and widespread that it cannot be repaired, the cell commits suicide.
Cancer cells divide very fast, so they’ll have to face these damages early and make a “decision”: repair or die. Healthy cells don’t divide that fast and they have more time to repair their DNA back to fuctional levels.
This is also the reason why your skin, stomach, and all kind of mucosas of the body are harmed by chemo. Because they replicate faster than other cells/organs.
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