Types of radiation therapy explained
Kara Rogers, biomedical sciences editor of Encyclopædia Britannica, discussing radiation therapy.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
-
© Behind the News (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Why not all people perceive colors the same way.
-
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Glyphosate is highly effective at managing weeds—but is that all it does?Media Editor: Casey Mendoza
-
© Massachusetts Institute of Technology (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Developing multifunctional fibers to deliver optical signals or drugs directly into the brain and to record neural activity.
-
© MinuteEarth (A Britannica Publishing Partner)The basic strategies behind the use of vaccines to prepare the human immune system to deal with harmful pathogens. Adjuvants, such as aluminum, are incorporated into vaccines to hasten the body's immune response.
-
AbbVie (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn about what cancer research and treatment options might look like in 2050.
-
© University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn how scientists use genomics to understand and treat melanoma.
-
AbbVie (A Britannica Publishing Partner)A description of the immunotherapy known as conditional activism.
News •
New pediatric consensus standardizes surgical management of Wilms tumor
• Nov. 2, 2026, 2:43 PM ET (News-Medical)
Transcript
Radiation therapy is a type of treatment that makes use of radiation to treat cancer. It's administered in different ways. There's external beam therapy, which is probably the most common in which a particular beam of radiation is generated external to the body and targeted to the tumor site. And then there is a form called brachytherapy, which is radiation implanted into the tumor, the tissue that bears the tumor.
Radiation therapy can be really effective because it can cause a rapid death of cancer cells; but it also causes side effects, most commonly in a form of secondary malignancies or secondary cancers.
Radiation therapy can be really effective because it can cause a rapid death of cancer cells; but it also causes side effects, most commonly in a form of secondary malignancies or secondary cancers.
Last Modification: