“Is radiation therapy safe?”
My friend is 50 years old. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and will have a radiation therapy. Is radiation therapy safe?
4 Answers
Yes. Treatment should be safe with new technology and experienced radiation oncologist
In the hands of a board d certified radiation oncologist with modern equipment and good training, radiation treatments are quite safe, though there may still be side effects in the immediate or delayed post-treatment period.
Roger Macklis
Roger Macklis
Radiation therapy is not my area of expertise, but I can say with confidence that with the newer technological advances in radiation oncology, severe damage to normal surrounding tissue is minimized to a greater degree. You’d need to have an in-depth discussion with your radiation oncologist to answer this question in more detail.
The goal of radiation therapy is to kill the tumor with radiation. Unfortunately, the beams don’t distinguish between cancerous and normal tissue. The side effects from the radiation are far better than letting the tumor run its course. Newer radiotherapies can better target the tumors, but side effects still occur.
