Should cancer patients undergo radiotherapy? Afraid of radiation and hair loss?

Radiotherapy is one of the main methods of treating cancer.

But should we have radiotherapy?

It's a very tangled topic.

After all, there are still many people who are worried

Before I did it, I had a long list of consequences in my mind.

"Radiotherapy radiation is very high, even if you are not sick, you will get sick."

“I can’t accept losing my hair anymore.”

"There is residual radiation, which affects my family..."

These words really sound scary.

But there are many misunderstandings

Today we are going to look at the topic of radiotherapy

See how fierce it is.

First of all, we need to know that radiotherapy is a treatment method that uses the ionizing radiation of high-energy rays to kill cancer cells. It is one of the three major methods of tumor treatment along with surgery and chemotherapy.

Image source: Photo Network

Seeing this, many people start to panic, and they must be thinking: "You just mentioned radiation, right? Radiation is bad for the body!"

Many people may think that radiation = nuclear radiation, so they automatically think of nuclear waste water, gene mutations, genetic diseases... In short, anything with radiation is not good.

It's really unfair to people. This radiation is not equal to that radiation. Let's answer the questions about radiotherapy radiation one by one.

Does radiotherapy involve radiation?

Yes! But the radiation from radiotherapy is controllable.

Today's radiotherapy technology is no longer the same as it was in the early years. With the support of computer technology and the upgrading of radiotherapy equipment, it can basically hit the target wherever it is pointed, and the accuracy can be controlled within 1mm. It can treat malignant tumors with little impact on surrounding normal tissues.

Image source: Photo Network

Will radiation cause side effects?

There are indeed some side effects, such as local pain, nausea, dry cough, difficulty eating, anal swelling and pain, redness and darkening of the skin, and hair loss...

Don’t panic! These symptoms don’t all appear all at once. It depends on where the radiotherapy is being performed.

Current radiotherapy is mainly local treatment, which basically only affects the part receiving radiotherapy.

If the head and neck tumor is receiving radiotherapy, the area of ​​the head exposed to the radiation will indeed lose hair , but the areas not exposed will generally not lose hair.

And don’t worry too much if your hair falls out. Usually, the hair will grow back two or three months after the end of radiotherapy.

Image source: Photo Network

In addition, some patients need other treatments besides radiotherapy, such as surgery, chemotherapy, targeted immunotherapy , etc. Then the doctor will make comprehensive arrangements based on the patient's specific situation.

Will the radiation remain?

No! Don't worry, you can have your baby and date as long as you want, it won't affect you.

There are two main types of radiotherapy: external radiation and internal radiation. External radiation is treatment outside the body. When the machine starts running, it will produce radiation, but once it stops, it will stop.

Internal irradiation is the process of placing radionuclides into a patient's body for treatment. There are two methods:

One is to permanently implant the radionuclide into the patient's body. This will cause radiation, but the range of the radionuclide rays is very short, usually in the millimeter level, and will only accurately attack cancer cells. The patient's body surface will not be radiated, and there will be no problem with contact with others.

Another method is to briefly introduce the isotope into the patient's body through a tube, and then recover the isotope after dozens of minutes of treatment. After the isotope is recovered, the radiation will be gone, so there is no need to worry about it either.

Image source: Photo Network

In general, although radiotherapy will produce some local effects, they are all controllable and have little impact on the patient's life. These small problems are not a hindrance to its great effects.

The most important thing is to relax! Before you start radiotherapy, you should first understand what radiotherapy is all about. If you do enough research, you won’t be so panicked.

In addition, you need to pay attention to the following matters before and after radiotherapy:

1. See a doctor for follow-up visits regularly, and detect and handle abnormal physical indicators in a timely manner;

2. Improve your nutritional level and enhance your immune function;

3. Do a good job of cleaning, and take a bath when necessary (you can take a bath! You can take a bath! You can take a bath! I say this three times because it is important). As long as you don’t rub or scrub too hard, and make sure your skin is dry after taking a bath, there will be no problem. If necessary, you can use some radiotherapy skin protectants to reduce skin reactions;

4. Take good sun protection measures on the radiotherapy area.

In fact, most cancer patients can receive radiotherapy to varying degrees at different stages of the tumor disease.

According to the 2020 Global Cancer Statistics Report, about 70% of cancer patients need radiotherapy, and about 40% of cancers can be cured by radiotherapy. However, due to factors such as equipment, the number of professionals, and the mentality of patients, radiotherapy is far from being so popular in clinical treatment.

There are also some cancers for which radical radiotherapy is the standard treatment, such as nasopharyngeal cancer, prostate cancer, etc. For patients with metastatic cancer cells, radiotherapy is also very effective.

Image source: Photo Network

In fact, radiotherapy now has many new application scenarios, such as the treatment of non-malignant diseases. For example, the common keloid can be effectively prevented from recurring by timely radiotherapy after surgical resection.

West China Hospital of Sichuan University is also trying to apply radiotherapy to the treatment of arrhythmias, Alzheimer's disease and other diseases.

In order to make radiotherapy safer and more effective for patients, radiotherapy technology is developing rapidly. For example, the world's most advanced heavy ion and proton radiotherapy equipment currently under construction at West China Hospital of Sichuan University will make radiotherapy more effective and less toxic after it is put into use in the future, relying on the advantages of biology and physical dosimetry.

With the continuous advancement of technology, radiotherapy will be used more and more widely and controlled better in the future.

In short, you don’t need to worry too much about radiotherapy. Like surgery, it is a very mature treatment method. As long as you listen to your doctor and do your preparation, there will be no problems.

Statement: This article is a medical-related educational popular science article. It does not involve specific treatment methods or medical behaviors and cannot replace hospital visits.

Experts collaborating on this article

References

[1] Song Qiong, Cao Chuanhui, He Lian, Wang Wei, Liu Qian. Current status of research on tumor radiotherapy and immunotherapy[J]. Practical Journal of Cancer, 2023, 38(11): 1911-1914.

[2] Pan Feng. Precision radiotherapy is one of the important means of core tumor treatment[J]. Chinese Contemporary Medicine, 2022, 29(08): 1-6.

[3] Cheng Fangfang, Zhu Huanhuan, Jia Chaochao, Yan Rong, Lin Yuting, Ding Min, Meng Xiangmin. Investigation on influencing factors of radiation dermatitis in cancer patients during radiotherapy[J]. Nursing Research, 2023, 37(19): 3597-3604.

Content Production

Editor: Zhang Fuyao

Map: Eastern Zhou Dynasty