Treating Cancer with Radiation

Radiation therapy is the careful use of high-energy radiation to treat cancer. A radiation oncologist may use radiation to cure cancer or to relieve a cancer patient's pain.

Radiation therapy works because the radiation destroys the cancer cells' ability to reproduce and the body naturally gets rid of these cells.

A cancer patient may be treated with radiation alone. Prostate cancer and larynx cancer are often treated in this manner.

Sometimes radiation therapy is part of a patient's treatment. For example, a woman may have radiation therapy after breast conserving surgery. She can be cured of her cancer and still keep her breast. When radiation therapy is only part of a patient's treatment it is called adjuvant treatment. More