Informative Essay On Radiation Therapy

“Radiation therapy is one of the most common treatments for cancer” (American Cancer Society, 2017, para. 1). American Cancer Society (2017) notes that radiation therapy is often referred to as radiotherapy, irradiation, or x-ray therapy. This therapy can be given in three main ways know as external beam, internal, and systemic radiation. “Radiation uses high-energy particles, such as x-rays, gamma rays, electron beams, or protons” (National Cancer Institute, 2011, para. 6). “Radiation works by making small breaks in DNA inside cells. These breaks keep cancer cells from growing and dividing and often cause them to die” (American Cancer Society, 2017, para. 2). The radiation penetrates through the skin to the specific cancerous area. Acoording