|  | Radiotherapy uses very high energy X-rays, which are focused on tumours to kill the cancerous cells. This type of treatment is used quite commonly for lymphoma as the focusing of the beams on the tumour reduces the amount of radiation that passes through normal healthy cells. It is not used very often in leukaemia treatment because the cancer cells are spread through the body. This means that in order to kill them, high levels of radiation would be given to all healthy tissues as well.
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The only time when the whole body may need to be treated with radiotherapy is prior to a stem cell transplant. This is called total body irradiation, you may hear doctors calling it TBI. |
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| | "I got very severe headaches from my radiotherapy and a horrible taste in my mouth. My short-term memory was terrible too because of the treatment but luckily it is much better now. It was also pretty embarrassing, walking around with permanent pen marks on my face, like someone had done a dot-to-dot on my face while I was asleep and I didn’t know!"
Visit the Patient UK website for more information about radiotherapy.
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