Why radiotherapy is given

Curative treatment

Radiotherapy is often given with the aim of destroying a tumour and curing the cancer. Radiotherapy given in this way is described as curative or radical radiotherapy.

Radiotherapy may be used on its own or may be given before or after surgery| or chemotherapy|. Chemotherapy is the use of anti-cancer drugs to destroy cancer cells. If radiotherapy and chemotherapy are given at the same time, this treatment is known as chemoradiation.

For some types of curative radiotherapy treatment, you may need to go to the hospital each weekday for between two and seven weeks. In this situation, a small dose of radiotherapy is given each time. This is because as well as damaging cancer cells, radiotherapy can also cause damage to healthy cells in the treatment area. If a very high dose of treatment is given in one go it can cause too much damage to the healthy cells, so small doses are given to allow them to recover in between.

Palliative treatment

Sometimes when it’s not possible to cure a cancer, radiotherapy may be given to relieve symptoms – to lessen pain|, for example. This is called palliative treatment. Lower doses of radiotherapy are given than for curative treatment, usually over a shorter period of time (sometimes just a single treatment).