When it comes to treating cancer, patients often find themselves with little option beyond aggressive methods of treatments. These include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted therapy and more.
Among these, the most common is chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
How to treat cancer through chemotherapy and radiotherapy:
Chemotherapy is the treatment of disease through the use of chemical substances, especially the treatment of cancer by cytotoxic and other drugs.
One of the more common cancer treatments, chemotherapy essentially prevents the growth of cancer cells, and destroys them to the point where doctors can no longer detect them in the body.
However, this comes with many side effects; chemotherapy cannot detect and destroy only cancer cells. It harms healthy cells as well, thus causing the commonly known hair falling that chemotherapy patients experience. Such side effects go away and improve once chemotherapy is over.
Radiotherapy, on the other hand, is the use of radiation, where high-energy rays are aimed at the area of problem or where radioactive material is placed in the body. The rays destroy cancer cells that cannot regenerate after the procedure. While it also destroys the good cells, such cells can regenerate after the procedure.
Radiotherapy is often recommended to patients with a benign tumour, and is used along with chemotherapy.
While scientists and researchers have been engaging in more research on how to cure cancer with less invasive methods, patients undergoing such treatments often find themselves feeling extreme fatigue, and are encouraged to rest during their period of treatment.
References
http://www.medicinenet.com/chemotherapy/article.htm#how_does_chemotherapy_work