Radiation therapy, which destroys cancerous cells, is probably the biggest single treatment method of cancer in the world today. Sufferers of breast cancer can actually be free of cancer after receiving radiation treatment. Radiation therapy can be given alone or as part of a sequence of treatments such as chemotherapy or operational surgery.

It is vitally important as a patient to understand radiation therapy, the uses it has, the side effects it can cause and what will happen after treatment.

All cells, either cancerous or healthy, continually split to make new cells. Cancerous cells go through this process significantly quicker than normal cells which allows the disease to spread.

Radiation therapy involves the accurate delivery of high energy particles or waves in large doses to the cancerous cells to stop them multiplying by causing irreversible damage to them. The radiation breaks a strand within the DNA molecule inside cancerous cells to prevent growth. This will have an effect on healthy surrounding cells but these seem to fully recover from the effects of radiation therapy. Chemotherapy is different in that the whole body is exposed to agents that fight cancers whereas radiation therapy can be performed on a more local area of the body.

As far as side effects go, breast cancer patients can experience several things either during or after treatment. These may include fatigue, difficulty or pain when swallowing, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, coughing, changes in the pigmentation of the skin, swelling or loss of hair in the treated area. Some patients suffer no side effects whatsoever.

After radiation therapy, a patient must undergo fairly extensive follow-up care. This will include regular visits to the Doctor to check the day-to-day progress of the patient as well as managing any problems that arise.

In some cases, medical care being administered before or during radiation therapy will need to continue such as dietary needs, exercise plans or medicine.

Some patients may continue to experience continued discomfort of the skin around the treated area. This must be looked after gently with no tight clothes or dressings worn around it, with the area to be lightly padded dry after washing instead of wiping. Patients should rest often while the body works to build up healthy supplies of skin tissue again.

For patients that continue to experience prolonged period of fatigue, rest should once again be on the agenda and this can last for several months after treatment. Patients that continue to feel pain will need to visit a Doctor who may refer them back to the hospital if it fails to subside.

There is also an emotional price to be paid after having breast cancer and radiation therapy. This can lead to patients suffering from depression, anger, grief, anxiety, stress and many other strong emotional feelings. If these feeling become overbearing, seeking the help of trained mental health care specialists is an absolute necessity.

Recovering from cancer can be a long, tiring, painful and emotionally exhausting experience. However, radiation therapy can frequently kill the cancerous cells on a long-term basis with patients living long, happy and pain-free lives for many years afterward.

To learn much more about the different types of radiation procedures, visit AllAboutRadiationTreatments.com where you'll find this and much more, including the effects of radiation therapy, and breast cancer medication.

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