Difference between Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy

What is Chemotherapy?

It involves the use of drugs in order to destroy cancer cells. Prevents the growth of cancer cells by preventing their division. Chemotherapy kills these cells faster than it takes to kill healthy cells. The drugs have strong effects, destroying healthy cells generates side effects.

There are different types of chemotherapy:

• Standard, traditional, or cytotoxic chemotherapy.
• Targeted drugs: They work by attacking the genes and proteins of cancer cells.
• Immunotherapy.

It is used in conjunction with radiotherapy, surgery to treat cancer, it is also used to treat recurrent cancer and that which metastasizes.
Read Also: Cyst Vs Tumour

What is Radiotherapy?

Radiation is a form of movement of energy from one place to another. High-energy radiation such as X-rays can modify cells to the point of causing such damage that it destroys them. In radiation therapy, high-intensity x-rays are used to kill cancer cells. Those who oversee this therapy are called radiation oncologists.
Treating cancer requires a certain number of treatments over a certain period of time. Its objective is to destroy cancer cells and delay tumor growth avoiding tissue damage. It is used as adjunctive therapy in companies with other cancer treatments or as a single therapy. It is also used as a palliative to relieve symptoms caused by terminal cancer.

Types of Radiotherapy

There are some types of radiation therapy:

• External beam radiation therapy.
• Three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT)
• Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)
• Proton beam therapy.
• Stereostatic radiation therapy.

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Chemotherapy vs Radiation Therapy

Difference between Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy

• Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer through cytotoxic drugs.
• Radiation therapy is the treatment of cancer with high-energy x-rays.