This combination therapy has more benefits and more side effects. That means they make the targeted cancer tissue more susceptible to radiation. Another form of radiation therapy is radioactive iodine. It is swallowed as a liquid and circulates through the body. It is used to treat thyroid cancer.
Radioactive iodine has a short half-life, so the radioactivity disappears within a few days.
Total body radiation at low doses is used before bone marrow transplants . It destroys the existing bone marrow and suppresses the immune system. The procedure to deliver external beam radiation is somewhat similar to giving an x-ray. The person is put into position and the machine that delivers the radiation is lined up as well. The machine is then activated and delivers the radiation to the desired area.