Doctors use radioactivity for treating cancer. In the medical world it isn’t called radioactivity, it is called radiation therapy. What radiation therapy does is it uses high energy radiation to kill and shrink cancer cells. The cancer patient does not need to undergo surgery for this treatment, you are simply put inside a machine and then the radiation therapy takes place, it uses laser beams from the outside so doctors do not have to do surgery on the patient at that time. Most cancer patients undergo some form of radiation therapy during their treatment. One thing that can be unsafe about radiation therapy is that it sometimes doesn’t just destroy or shrink cancer cells it can sometimes destroy or shrink regular cells that your body needs, …show more content…
Now it’s not just the type that important it’s the size, the location, how close it is to the tissue, how far the radiation will have to go in, and others. In most situations radiation therapy is for people with cancer that isn’t the “Strongest” the intent while getting radiation therapy is to cure or take care of the cancer. In most cases it is a 50/50 chance for it to be cured or for it to be worse and that is one hard thing patients and doctors have to think about before scheduling radiation therapy. Moving on to something patients are worried about.. Side effects. Now there can be painful side effects and there can be “Ok” side effects, some side effects take place right after or shortly after therapy and some occur a while after therapy and most likely they both are going to suck. When normal cells are also destroyed during the therapy the side effects are not very pleasant. The most common side effects for destroyed cells are, skin irritation (Where the radiation beam was), damage to salivary glands (When the neck area is treated), Urinary problems (When the lower areas are treated), and hair loss (When the head is