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THE SIDE-EFFECTS OF RADIATION

Radiotherapy, in the process of penetrating the skin, unavoidably causes damage to the normal cells adjoining the cancer cells. In the same way that skin becomes sunburned when exposed to strong sunlight, one of radiotherapy’s side effects is to cause skin itching, which can be relieved by the use of steroid preparations. However, in addition to this, the patient also suffers nausea, vomiting, anorexia, swollen limbs, lymphocytopenia (a decrease in white blood cells,) mucositis mucitis of the oral cavity and esophagus, as well as damage to the bone marrow and pneumonitis. In effect, the patient must not only fight cancer but also the side effect that irradiation entails.

Some refinements in radiotherapy have been instituted to decrease the volume of radiation necessary for the treatment to be effective. Radioactive ray intensifying agents and hypoxia intensifying agents have been developed that intensify the effects of radiation on cancer cells with lower doses of irradiation. Despite these innovations, radiotherapy remains destructive of healthy as well as cancer cells. It will be a long time before this therapy can be made free of harmful side effects.

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