WHAT IS RADIATION TREATMENT?
The expressions radiation treatment and radiotherapy mean the same thing: treatment with various forms of ionising radiation. The treatment is usually given by beaming the rays through the body from a machine which looks a bit like the ones they take X-rays with. Less commonly, radiation treatment is given by temporarily placing radioactive substances inside the body.
Ionising radiation is radiation that can break molecules into electrically charged particles called ions. Radiation passing through you from a machine outside the body does not make you radioactive. If your treatment involved putting radioactive substances in or on your body this would make you temporarily radioactive, but only for as long as the substance was actually present. As soon as it was removed or lost its radioactivity you would no longer be radioactive and it would be perfectly safe for anyone to come into close contact with you.
All forms of ionising radiation are invisible, travel in straight lines, can pass through the body painlessly and are capable of damaging all living cells. Radiation treatment does not burn you. You don’t feel anything while it is actually passing through you. X-rays are one form of ionising radiation. For treating cancer very, very much stronger (higher voltage) X-rays are used than for taking X-ray pictures for diagnosis. Other forms of radiation are also used to treat cancer—these are all closely related to X-rays.
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