The ability to multiply without limits, grow quickly, and grow into surrounding normal tissues makes cancer cells different from normal cells. There are many different types of cancer. Each type of cancer is unique in how it grows and how it responds to treatment. One way to stop the cancer from growing is to interfere with the cancer cell s ability to multiply. Radiation, used at high doses, causes changes in the cancer cell that stop the cell s ability to multiply and eventually kills the cancer cell.
Radiation therapy is one of four approaches to the treatment of cancer.
The other three are surgery, chemotherapy, and biological therapy. Since each type of cancer is unique, research has helped physicians determine which treatment or combination of treatments is appropriate for each type of cancer. Radiation therapy may be used in an attempt to cure the cancer or to treat unpleasant symptoms the cancer is causing such as pain or bleeding. The most common types of cancer that radiation therapy is used for are brain tumors, head and neck cancers, lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer, rectal cancer, cervix and uterine cancers, lymphoma, and sarcoma. Radiation therapy for the treatment of cancer may be given in two different ways.