自由トピックで会話してみよう

Radiation therapy is used to treat almost all cancers. It is a type of cancer treatment that uses high doses of radiation to destroy cancer cells while protecting healthy tissues. Radiation therapy usually uses X-rays. The typical way is external beam radiation therapy. Depending on the patient, it is used before surgery to shrink the cancer. Also, it is used after surgery to prevent remaining cancer cells from growing. It usually occurs five days a week for several weeks. The treatment is a painless process that typically takes 30-45 minutes, including set-up time, but the actual treatment only takes 2-5 minutes. Next, I'll explain the preparation of the therapy.

First, CT scans or MRIs are taken to find the exact spot, and radiation technicians mark the places where radiation will be irradiated on the patient lying on the treatment table. Then, the machine moves around the patient, delivering radiation. Some patients have only either chemotherapy or radiation therapy, while some have both of them. It is determined based on the kind of cancer, the extent of the cancer, and the patient's condition. Chemotherapy doesn't work for some types of cancer, and neither does radiation therapy.

In Japan, around a quarter to one-third of cancer patients undergo radiotherapy. According to the WHO, over half of the countries in the world lack enough radiation therapy machines; nearly 40 nations don't have any machines. The adverse reactions of radiotherapy are fatigue, itchy skin, and skin problems in the area that received radiation.