• Question: How do you use x-Ray's to treat cancer

    Asked by 722radg34 to Kate, Pip, Reka on 10 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by 424radg22, Bubbles9, 944radg34, HAS(2016), Ria.s.
    • Photo: Kate Elliott

      Kate Elliott answered on 10 Nov 2016:

      X-rays can damage cells in the body. Luckily cancer cells are more sensitive to x-rays so are more likely to be damaged. By shaping the x-ray beam so that lots of x-rays are going in to the cancer tumour, without many x-rays getting the healthy cells, we can kill off the tumour.

      We have to be careful because the healthy cells are also damaged by x-rays, so to give them time to repair we give a little bit of x-ray radiation once a day for a few weeks. This means we can kill the cancer but not give the patient bad side effects from harming the rest of the body.

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