Cancer has affected more than a million people and has caused the death of thousands

(National Cancer Institute, 2013). This is an ailment that causes cells to act abnormally in
particular attacking other tissues. These cells are easily spread to the other parts of the body
through the blood and lymph systems.
There are many ways which one can decrease the chances of cancer emerging in the body
(National Cancer Institute, 2013). Some would be engaging in healthy life habits such as eating
regularly or avoiding unadvised methods of leisure like smoking or too much drinking.
Moreover, these habits would also help even if cancer is already in the body of a patient and
treatment is already being done. In other words, there would be better chances that the treatment
would be successful. Aside from these preventive measures, cancer patients also opt to select a
type of treatment which they deem is most effective.
Radiation therapy also known as radiotherapy is a method of treating cancer in which
high doses of radiation are given to terminate or refrain the multiplication of the cancer cells
(National Cancer Institute, 2013). The National Cancer Institute stated that sometimes radiation
therapy is the only kind of cancer treatment people need (p.1, #3). Radiation therapy falls way
back to 1895 (Ciezki, Klein, Tendulkar, & Ward, 2013). In 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen found
photographs of the body structures of the hand that traces back to the start of radiation therapy
where more discoveries were made such as the discovery of Imbert about external beam
radiation therapy which was used in 1904 to treat prostate cancer. Radiation therapy is emerged
more advantages as a treatment for cancer patients.
The technique and precision in using this therapy is a long process (National Cancer
Institute, 2013). It will still depend on the situation of the patient and may take days or weeks
before those cancer cells start to fade. On the other hand, many people need radiation therapy in

treating cancer. In fact, approximately more than half or about 60 percent of cancer patients
receive radiation therapy (National Cancer Institute, 2012). However, people have been
questioning the effectiveness of radiation therapy to cure cancer. Although radiation therapy has
various side effects in treating cancer, it is still the best option because it has a more reasonable
cost, safer, and more effective.
During the patients treatment, there are some side effects that are visible to the patient
like the damaging of the cell (Patten, 2010, & National Cancer Institute, 2010). These side
effects would depend on the amount of radiation taken, where it is given, and how the process is
done, whether internal or external.
Since different side effects would usually depend on the area affected by the radiation,
there are various side effects that may appear (National Cancer Institute, 2010). For example, if
the brain is receiving the radiation, it would likely cause hair loss, fatigue, vomiting, or skin
changes (National Cancer Institute, 2012). These side effects are similar in treating the chest,
head and neck, stomach and abdomen, pelvic area, rectum, and breast. The difference is that
chest may also cause throat changes, cough, and shortness of breath. Head and neck may cause
mouth changes, earaches, and taste changes. Stomach and abdomen may cause diarrhea and
urinary and bladder changes. Pelvic area may cause sexual and fertility changes while breast may
cause tenderness swelling. Hair loss or alopecia happens when radiation is being treated in the
brain or any part of the body. Fatigue may be caused by the stress of having to go to the therapy
everyday. Skin changes such as redness, dryness of skin, moist reaction, and swollen skin also
occur since radiation cause cells in the skin to be damaged. Diarrhea happens when the radiation
damage one of the healthy cells located in the large and small bowels. Mouth changes happens
when radiation harms the healthy cells resulting to mouth sores, dry mouth, tooth decay, jaw

stiffness, and change in taste. Nausea and vomiting is based on how much the radiation is given
to the patient. Throat changes occur when radiation harms the healthy cells in the linings on the
throat that causes the throat to grow sore. Urinary and bladder changes happen when radiation
damage one of the healthy cells in the bladder walls and urinary tract resulting to swollen ulcers
and infection. Sexual and fertility changes occur when radiation is being placed in the pelvic area
resulting to pain, fatigue, and depression. These are just some of the side effects given. However,
despite all of these, research has been done to show that radiation therapy have been well
improved and would be best to be used in curing cancer.
Although most of the types of treatment of cancer are known to be very expensive,
radiation therapy is the best method because it has a reasonable cost due to the medical
equipment and medicines that would be used. Those factors would be the type of cancer the
patient possesses and the type and number of treatments the patient has to take. These treatments
could either be given through external radiation therapy or internal radiation therapy.
Internal radiation therapy is a treatment in which radiation sources is being placed within
the body (National Cancer Institute, 2010; National Cancer Institute, 2012). One type of this
treatment is called brachytherapy where the radiation is being placed in the body in a solid form
like seeds, capsules, or ribbons. Aside from the solid form, there is also a liquid form like pills
for swallowing. This liquid form of radiation aims to chase and kill cancer cells. Most
brachytherapy would be using various equipments like in a small, stretchy tube called catheter
where it is usually placed by a larger device called an applicator. Furthermore, brachytherapy has
three types that depend accordingly to the dosage of radiation given to the patient namely they
are low-dose rate implants, high-dose rate implants, and permanent implants. Low-dose rate
implants also called as LDR implants is a treatment in which radiation would stay in the body of

the patient for 1-7 days and likely one is advised to stay in the hospital for monitoring purposes.
High-dose rate implants also called as HDR implants is a treatment in which radiation source is
placed in the body for 10 to 20 minutes and afterwards taken out. The process goes for about
twice a day for about 2 to 5 days or once a week for 2 to 5 weeks depending in the type of cancer
the patient has. However, the patient may either stay in the hospital or may take trips going to the
hospital until the treatment is finished. Permanent implants is a treatment wherein the radiation
source is put in place and would stay in the body until the radiation gets weaker each day and
completely goes away. These treatments are expensive due to the involvement of machines and
the services of the people who are supervising this treatment. However, it is still a reasonable
cost because of its effectiveness in treating cancer.
Linear accelerators (also called the LINAC) are machines used to perform external beam
radiation therapy (National Cancer Institute, 2010 & 2012). The therapy aims to treat cancer by
the use of radiation that is send to the body. The radiation of the therapy is often in the form of
photon beams which is given through gamma rays and x-rays One specific example of a
treatment is the intensity modulated radiation therapy or in short, the IMRT. IMRT is costly due
to the equipment used (Crook, & Fernandez-Ots, 2013). It is estimated that about $20,000 or
more is the starting cost of IMRT based on the country which the patient is being treated.
Furthermore, it is expensive for developing countries such as Spain which costs about 5-6 times
than the 3D conformal radiation therapy.
Despite the various side effects that the patient will be receiving during his treatment in
radiation therapy, it is still considered safer since these side effects are made temporary. It has
also been used by doctors in treating cancer for the past 100 years. Researchers have conducted
research trials confirming that radiation therapy is safe (National Cancer Institute, 2010).

However, there have been studies that claim radiation therapy gives risk to the health of patients.
Doctors on the other hand, claim that it does not impose threat to the health of patients because
they would be exposed to radiation for only short periods of time. According to Weiss (2014)
there is a certain amount of therapeutic dose that destroys cancer cells. Radio oncologists strive
to achieve the maximum dose while avoiding or minimizing the side effects to the normal tissue.
Weiss also stated that the dose of radiation is only given once to a particular part of the body.
Radio oncologists make sure that the dose of radiation is enough for the healthy tissues to
tolerate. Although the healthy tissues heal and return to normal, treating the area twice is not
allowed since healthy tissues might not be able to tolerate the radiation as it did before. It is also
the responsibility of medical practitioners in the field of radiotherapy to ensure a precise delivery
of radiation doses to tumor tissues (Rivera-Montalvo, 2012). According to National Cancer
Institute (2012) doctors tried their best in keeping the healthy cells or tissues safe from damaging
by using a small amount of radiation to kill cancer cells and to prevent harming the healthy cells.
They also use medicines to help some parts of the body from being harmed such as preventing
the salivary gland from making saliva. New methods were introduced like the intensity
modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and the 3-D conformal radiation therapy to let higher dose
of radiation point to the cancer cells, at the same time, degrading the radiation to the healthy
cells. Lastly, doctors spread the radiation in order to kill cancer cells while recovering the normal
cells.
In addition, researchers have found ways to make radiation therapy safer. According to
the National Cancer Institute (2010), since healthy cells near the tumor or cancer cells are
damaged in the process, scientists have been studying to formulate radiosensitizers and
radioprotectors, which are made up of chemicals that make cancer cells more sensitive to

radiation. Other anti-cancer drugs have been produced such as 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin that
also make cancer cells sensitive to radiation. On the other hand, radioprotectors have been
formulated by scientists to protect the healthy cells from the hazardous effects of radiation
therapy. Currently, there are still researchers done in order for scientists to identify other
chemicals that can be used as radioprotectors.
Although there are other effective treatments that can cure cancer, radiation therapy is
known to be the most effective treatment when it comes to treating cancer. According to Bold,
Chen, Chew, Daly & Mayadev (2013), radiation therapy is more effective, since it can extend the
life of the patient, and it is effective in surgery. Radiation therapy strives to cure cancer, to
control the cancer cells by lessening it, and to ease symptoms by decreasing the cancer
symptoms and extending the life of the patient (Cancer Org, 2013). However, many still question
the effectiveness of this therapy. According to a comparison of breast-conserving surgery plus
axillary radiotherapy without axillary lymph node dissection vs. a modified radical mastectomy
in treating breast cancer, it was concluded that surgery with postectoperative axillary
radiotherapy, which has certain applications and value alone, is more effective than modified
radical mastectomy (Chen, Chen, Duan, Lai, Xing, Yan & Zhang, 2013).In fact, radiation therapy
had the most survival rates in treating cancer. From the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group, a
study was shown that the survival rates of the patient with primary tumors have a high ranking
survival rates (Alongi, Bilbao, Boveda, Cacicedo, del Hoyo, Gomez de Iturriaga, .., Navarro
2013).
In the 21st century, there has been a promising improvement in the process and delivery of
radiation therapy (Bayman, Christodoulou, Faivre-Finn, McCloskey & Rowbutton, 2013). This
includes new ways to enhance target definition and integration of tumor movement in

radiotherapy. Furthermore, they devised ways to give more precise and individualized dose,
allowing better outcome in terms of treatment with reduced tissue exposure. Studies and
developments in the field of external radiation have also been made (Rivera-Montalvo, 2013).
Radiotherapy depends on controlling the radiation dose, and the techniques have rapidly evolved
from conventional three-dimensional to intensity-modulated radiation therapy also known as
radiosurgery and robotic radiation therapy. This means that radiotherapy is now made more
effective while minimizing the risk through the development of radiation therapy dosimetry
techniques. Patients are given better care by being given a better assessment and more precise
level of dosage of radiation.
Radiation therapy had developed a promising improvement in the delivery of treating
cancer. It is known to be one of the methods in treating cancer in which high doses of radiation
are given to terminate cancer cells. Radiation therapy is given in two ways by external beam
radiation therapy or internal radiation therapy. Internal radiation therapy is a treatment in which
radiation sources is being placed within the body while external beam radiation therapy is the use
of radiation that is send to the body. Aside from that, there are many ways to prevent cancer to
occur like engaging in healthy life habits. Moreover, radiation therapy is proven to have a
reasonable cost due to the medical equipment used and the services of the radiation practitioners.
Although there are quite expensive in other developing countries like Spain, there are still
considered reasonable cost because of its effectiveness in treating cancer. However, it is said to
be that radiation therapy has some various side effects after the treatment such as hair loss,
fatigue, diarrhea, mouth changes, nausea and vomiting, sexual and fertility changes, skin
changes, urinary and bladder changes, headaches, earaches, taste changes, and tenderness
swelling. Since these side effects are made temporary, radiation therapy is considered safe.

Doctors try ways to prevent them from harming any healthy cells and assure the patients that
they will provide a precise delivery of radiation to tumor tissues. A study stated that radio
oncologists strive to achieve the maximum dose while minimizing the side effects to the normal
tissue. The effectiveness of radiation therapy was proven to have the most survival rate in
treating cancer. It also made some improvement in devising ways to give more precise and
individualized dose to allow better outcome in terms of treatment with reduced tissue exposure.
Furthermore, radiation therapy aims to cure cancer cells, control the cancer cells by lessening it,
and to ease symptoms by decreasing the cancer symptoms and extending the life of the patient.
This shows that radiation therapy is effective, since it can extend the life of the patient, and it is
effective in surgery.
However, it is recommended that those people who has cancer must used radiation
therapy, since it has a reasonable cost, safer, and more effective in treating cancer patients.