Many patients find the quality of their lives improved when radiation therapy is used to shrink tumors and reduce pressure, bleeding, pain, or other symptoms of cancer. This is called palliative treatment . As with many other treatments for disease, there are risks for patients who are receiving radiation therapy. The brief, high-level doses of radiation that damage or destroy cancer cells can also hurt normal cells. When this happens, the patient has side effects.
Some patients have both forms, one after the other.
Most people who receive radiation therapy for cancer have the external type. It is usually given as an outpatient at the Medical X-Ray Center in the Avera Cancer Institute or at the Minnesota Avenue location in Sioux Falls. In external therapy, a machine directs the high-energy rays or particles at the cancer and a margin of normal tissue near it. The various machines used for external radiation work in slightly different ways. Your doctor decides which machine is best for you.