Nuclear Radiation With Cancer

A cancer diagnosis may mean radiation therapy.

Nuclear power house world war ii. Some examples of radiation include sunlight radio waves x rays heat alpha beta gamma ionizing radiation and infrared just to name a few. Not all of these types of radiation are harmful in fact in. When treatments are used to ease symptoms they are known as palliative treatments.

In general it takes a pretty high dose of radiation to increase cancer risk higley said. When we think of radiation we may immediately think of only dangerous and harmful things. These scans use liquid substances called radionuclides also called tracers or radiopharmaceuticals that release low levels of radiation.

It shrinks tumors and kills cancer cells. It can eject an electron from an atom. In reality the word radiation refers to any transfer of energy through space from a source.

Ionizing radiation can damage dna and although your cells repair most of the damage they sometimes do the job imperfectly leaving small areas of. Much of what is known about cancer caused by radiation exposures from nuclear power plant accidents comes from research on the april 1986 nuclear power plant disaster at chernobyl in what is now ukraine. The radioactive isotopes released during the chernobyl accident included i 131 cs 137 and sr 90.

External beam radiation may shrink tumors to treat pain and other problems caused by the tumor such as trouble breathing or loss of bowel and bladder control. Nuclear scans make pictures based on the bodys chemistry like metabolism rather than on physical shapes and forms as is the case with other imaging tests. This interaction between ionizing radiation and.

The radiation you get from x ray ct and nuclear imaging is ionizing radiation high energy wavelengths or particles that penetrate tissue to reveal the bodys internal organs and structures. When used to treat cancer radiation therapy can cure cancer prevent it from returning or stop or slow its growth. Learn the types of therapy cancers each treats and side effects.

Radiation exposure and cancer the associations between radiation exposure and cancer are mostly based on populations exposed to relatively high levels of ionizing radiation eg japanese atomic bomb survivors and recipients of selected diagnostic or therapeutic medical procedures.