How does radiation therapy differ from chemotherapy in cancer treatment?
Radiation therapy is considered to be a “local” treatment, meaning that it affects only the area of the body to which it is directed. Radiation can be aimed at the part of the body affected by cancer with great accuracy, and so exposure of normal tissue is minimized. Chemotherapy differs because it is a systemic therapy. This means that the anticancer medicines travel throughout the whole body, rather than being confined to one area. Unlike radiation therapy, chemotherapy can reach cancer cells that may have spread to other parts of the body. In many cases, radiation therapy and chemotherapy are both part of a plan to treat a patients cancer.
