When people hear about radiotherapy, they will be frightened, and they will think of radiation, hair loss, skin burns and peeling from various movies and TV shows. Fear comes from the unknown. It is precisely because the public lacks understanding of radiotherapy that they have a fear of it. In fact, radiotherapy plays an important role in different stages of tumor treatment. 放射治療Statistics show that about 75% of tumor treatments require radiotherapy. From the perspective of cancer treatment, missing the opportunity for treatment due to misunderstanding and fear will seriously affect the survival of tumor patients.
Is radiotherapy really so terrible? Actually not.
Although radiotherapy is a little "toxic", it can also "save lives". Radiotherapy equipment seems bulky, but in fact, through precise calculation and operation, it can achieve precise treatment of tumors of different parts, shapes and sizes. It can be said that "there is a tiger in the heart, and the rose is sniffed carefully". And the mysterious hand that manipulates this power is modern medical technology.
How does radiotherapy control tumor growth?
In fact, radiotherapy is a treatment method that uses high-energy rays to destroy tumor cells. High-energy rays can penetrate human tissues and directly irradiate cancer cells, causing damage to their cell genetic material DNA, preventing the growth and division of cancer cells, thereby achieving the effect of treating tumors.
According to the differences in the physical properties of different rays and the biological characteristics of tumor cells, different rays have different effects on killing tumors. Technically, radiotherapy is divided into external beam radiotherapy and internal beam radiotherapy.
External beam radiotherapy, commonly known as external irradiation, is the most common form of radiotherapy, and most tumors are treated by external irradiation.
Internal beam radiotherapy, commonly known as internal irradiation, directly places the radiation source in or near the tumor tissue through a special system. At present, the main medical radiation sources are iridium 192, cobalt 60, etc. Internal irradiation is an important supplement to external irradiation, with an impact distance of only about 1 cm. While significantly increasing the radiation dose of the tumor, it causes minimal damage to the surrounding tissues. For some gynecological tumors, such as cervical cancer, vaginal cancer, endometrial cancer, etc., internal irradiation is performed after external irradiation treatment, which is commonly known as "afterloading" treatment to further improve the tumor control effect.
How to choose a variety of radiotherapy rays?
Commonly used rays include: X-rays, gamma rays, protons, heavy ions, etc.
Traditional radiotherapy techniques mostly use X-rays or gamma rays. Before reaching the tumor, the energy decays exponentially, so it will cause some inevitable damage to the tissues around the tumor.
Proton and heavy ion rays do not release much energy before reaching the tumor lesion, but after reaching the lesion, they will instantly release a large amount of energy, forming an energy release trajectory called "Bragg peak". This is like a bombardment of "hurting the enemy a thousand and losing two hundred" on one side, and a "directional blasting" that is accurate and efficient to reach the target on the other side. Compared with traditional radiotherapy, this treatment technology can achieve better control of tumors while reducing toxic and side effects.
Not only cure cancer, but also preventive effect?
At present, precision radiotherapy technology is widely used in the field of cancer treatment, almost including most solid tumors, lymphomas, etc., and even involves the treatment of some benign diseases. According to the purpose of treatment, it is divided into radical radiotherapy, adjuvant radiotherapy, palliative and preventive radiotherapy.
Radiotherapy can be used independently as a radical treatment, such as nasopharyngeal cancer, laryngeal cancer, cervical cancer, etc., and can also be used in combination with surgery, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, etc. as an auxiliary treatment, such as breast cancer, lung cancer, etc.
For some patients with underlying physical diseases or the elderly and frail, or who are not suitable for surgical treatment, and some patients who wish to preserve their organs, radiotherapy is as effective as surgical treatment, such as early lung cancer, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, bladder cancer, prostate cancer, etc.
For some diseases, preventive radiotherapy can even be performed, such as limited-stage small cell lung cancer, after radical treatment of the tumor is completely relieved, preventive whole brain irradiation can be used, which can significantly reduce the rate of brain metastasis.
Of course, in addition to cancer treatment, radiotherapy can also be used to inhibit scar hyperplasia, improve hyperthyroidism exophthalmos, etc.
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