As I understand, radiation therapy is basically directing highly concentrated x-rays/gamma radiation to kill tumors/cancer cells. I don’t quite get how, in this process of “shooting” high energy beams at the tumor, the skin/muscle cells don’t get damaged?
In: Biology
They do, but not as badly as the tumour.
The radiation is fired at the tumour from different directions. This means that the skin and other tissues only get part of the dose, and the tumour gets the full dose.
That’s what happened when my mum had radiotherapy for throat cancer. It still gave her terrible “sunburn” all round her face and neck.
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