Radiotherapy is the use of high energy x-rays and similar rays, such as photons, to treat illnesses. X-rays were discovered about 100 years ago and since then radiation has been used to help diagnose and treat cancer.
Radiotherapy is used:
- to cure the cancer
Radiotherapy can be given to destroy the tumour and, hopefully, cure the cancer. It can be given before or after surgery or chemo. Sometimes radiotherapy and chemotherapy are given at the same time which is known as chemoradiotherapy. - to relieve symptoms
This is called ‘palliative treatment’. Sometimes, if it’s not possible to cure a cancer, radiotherapy may be given to relieve symptoms, for example, to lessen pain. Lower doses of radiotherapy are given than in curative treatment, maybe just one or two treatments over a shorter period of time. - in stem cell & bone marrow transplants
This is called total body irradiation and is less common than the other types of radiotherapy. It’s mainly used for people who are having a bone marrow or stem cell transplant, for example, as a treatment for leukaemia. A large, single dose (or 6 to 8 smaller doses) of radiation, is given to the whole body to destroy the cells of the bone marrow. Very high doses of chemo are given, followed by new bone marrow or stem cells to replace the destroyed bone marrow. There will be more about this in our stem cell transplants section.
In this section, there is information about how radiotherapy works, how it is given and possible side effects - select an option from the left hand menu.
