What is it in radiation that kills cancer cells

What is it in radiation that kills cancer cells

http://www.chacha.com/question/what-is-it-in-radiation-that-kills-cancer-cells

Radiation therapy involves treating cancer with beams of high-energy particles or waves (radiation), such as gamma rays or X-rays.

How does radiation kills only the cancer cells?

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090214084017AAmTw85

It kills any cells, but tends to be more toxic to very rapidly dividing cells such as those that are cancerous, also it is very accurately targeted.

How Does Radiation Kill Cancer Cells?

http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4601469_radiation-kill-cancer-cells.html?ref=Track2&utm_source=ask

･ Normal cell division is regulated by a specific gene. In cancerous tissue the cells are missing the gene… ･ Radiation therapy is used to destroy cancer cells and has been used to treat almost every type of solid… ･ In external or brac…

Related Questions Answered on Y!Answers

Why is cancer categorized by body part?

Q: Cancer is cancer. Overload of cells grow in the human body causing harm and death. So I wonder why people in health have to break this ailment down by body part and separate brain cancer from breast cancer from prostate cancer. It’s all the same illness, just growing in a different part of the body. Maybe to make money advertisers will start promoting finger cancer and eye cancer next. Please, give me a break! Radiation apparently kills the cells, but that stuff might have bad side effects too so it is probably better to learn ahead of time how to eat healthy to avoid cancer altogether pending what triggers it. That would be better than having doctors specialize in a certain part of the body rather than understand the body as a whole and how it all works together. Wierd how people are excited about technological advances yet we still barely understand the human body.

A: I like the answer by “jack99sk..”The simple answer is this – cancers of different body parts behave differently. There are hundreds of very different diseases called “cancers.” We have over 100 different chemotherapy medications now. Some work for one type of cancer and not another. It is far more complicated than many people think. And we are learning the nature of different malignancies at the molecular / genetic level. You just have to read the medical oncology scientific literature which currently includes more and more molecular biology. Look at this data :The 2008 five year survival data from the American Cancer Society[Note that five year survival does not necessarily mean a “cure”.]All sites of cancers 66%Breast 89%Colon 65%Leukemia 50%Lung cancers 16%Melanoma 92%Non-Hodgkin lymphoma 64%Ovary 45%Pancreas 5%Prostate 99%Rectum 66%Urinary bladder 81%Note that most are still cured with surgery – not by chemotherapy.So, why should pancreatic cancer have a 5% survival and lung cancer a 16% 5 year survival when testicular cancers that have spread to distant sites are being cured now? (e.g. Lance Armstrong with testicular cancer spread to his brain and both lungs.) It is because they behave differently.Cancer is not one disease. Cancer is not just cancer as you say. Cancer is a general term for hundreds of very different diseases just as the term infection is a general term for many hundreds of different diseases caused by very different microbial organisms. I’m sure you realize the differences among viral, bacterial, fungal, and protozoal diseases. Cancers are just as multi-variant in behavior. Heck, no two people with breast carcinoma are exactly alike. There are at least 75 subtypes of lymphoma that have been identified so far.I like to find common denominators and simplify things whenever possible, but there is no simplification for the myriad expressions of malignant diseases among humans. Yes, they all share the excessive growth of a cellular clones which have lost the ability to know when to stop dividing, but there remain many variations down to the bio-molecular level.”Finger cancers” could be sarcomas of bone, sarcomas of muscle, vascular tumors, or skin malignancies – all very different diseases. Our treatments are much more non-specific than the diseases. That is because they are still very crude – radiation and non-specific systemic cytotoxic chemical therapies. Fifty years from now doctors will scoff at the crude therapies we use today – just as some doctors today scoff at the absence of effective treatments for malignancies 1959. But ask Lance Armstrong how he feels about modern systemic therapy for widespread “cancer.”You are certainly right about prevention. At least 31% of all cancer deaths in the U.S. could be prevented if people would not smoke cigarettes. It is indeed far better to prevent a cancer – especially one caused by tobacco carcinogens – rather than try to treat them successfully. So why are tobacco caused cancers of the mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus, lungs, and bladder so resistant to almost all of our many chemotherapy drugs? Because they have different characteristics from cancers of the testicle, lymphomas, breast cancers, etc.Wow – Good answer by “Midnight” We do indeed have more specialized terminology for cancer than just body part designations, but average non-medical people would not know what we were talking about if we used only these technical histopathological terms.

Could this be a cure for cancer?

Q: Okay this probably wouldn’t work, but it might just work.Bacteriaphages are a kind of virus that work like an Alien from the movie Alien. They infect a cell, and the cell will explode, and five more Bacteriaphages will come out. Now native americans used to say that there were magical streams that would cure all diseases. When studied more people realized it was bacteriaphage that was in the water. The bacteriaphage will always kill the weaker cells, so maybe it could kill cancer cells.What you would do is have a syringe of some sort, and inject bacteriaphages into the tumor. The bacteriaphages would quickly kill of the cancer cells in a week or two. How you would make the bacteriaphages is you could have a tank of water with cells in it. Release bacteriaphages into the water and they would quickly make millions, or billions of bacteriaphages. Then scientists could extract bacteriaphages from the water whenever needed.Also can bacteriaphages have radiation, and not die? That way they could burn all of the cancer cells, yet still spread. I hope a lot of people look at this.Bacteriaphages can kill normal cells also. They can kill almost all bacterias, so I just thought since they multiply really fast could they cure cancer.You see if a cancer cell was infected, and it then multiplied both new cells would be infected, and if those two cells split then all four cells would be infected.

A: A bacteriophage is any type of virus which infects bacteria and used as therapeutic means to treat pathogenic bacterial infections. On the other hand, cancer has cells that possess characteristics associated with normal stem cells.However, efforts are underway to genetically-modify and chemically manipulate filamentous bacteriophages. The perfect genetic manipulation will endow the bacteriophages with the ability to display a host-specificity-conferring ligand.Good Luck!

While fighting cancer, going through chemo & radiation, I mis?ed very little work. I am in an office where?

Q: it is only me & my boss so it was important for me to be there, I took this seriously. In the midst of that, the company lowered my salary grade but gave me a 3% raise, supposedly the max, great review too. Now my boss tells me yesterday that he doesn’t think I know how to work on the computer system, that I’m not invested in the co. & I need to live & think about work outside of normal work hours. He also mentioned that he noticed I am forgetful lately. I explained that when the chemo was killing bad cells, it was doing the same with brain cells so yes I am forgetful but have reminder notes all over my desk. Should I go to his boss or HR or both with these issues? Am I a risk now with cancer so looking for reasons to get rid of me? I have also had 3 recruiters persuing me lately too that he doesn’t know about. Could EEOC help in what to do?

A: Ugh – nice supportive boss you have there.So … the problem I see is that if you leave your health insurance will be a real issue. I *think* EEOC could help you – but you might see if there is a local cancer support group that can give you more direction. I’m sure this has happened to others – you can learn from their experiences. But I’m afraid I don’t know the answer completely – just ideas where to get more info.Best of luck & it sounds like you are pulling through the REAL challenge just fine!!!