how do you kill cancercell with radiation

Question: how do you kill cancercell with radiation
- Keywords:
  cancer,
  radioactive
Asked by bigorangesnail to Charlotte, Dhvanil, Frank, Jim, Leila on 11 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by jakemerrigan, cadetread, kayjadeee.
- Leila Nichol answered on 11 Mar 2013:
  
  We have big machines called linear accelerators which deliver very high energy X-ray (Megavolts). These are aimed at the tumour by looking at the patient’s CT scan. We deliver small doses every day for a couple of weeks. Because tumours and healthy tissue respond to radiation differently, the timing of these “fractions” of radiotherapy is chosen so that the tumour dies but the healthy tissue recovers.
  
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- Charlotte Kemp answered on 11 Mar 2013:
  
  Leila’s spot on. High levels of radiation harm all cells in the body, but can only kill them when they are in their dividing phase. Because cancer cells grow and divide quicker than the healthy cells then this means that they are more likely to be killed by the radiation than the healthy cells. So, over time, you can kill off all the cancer cells and leave behind just healthy cells.
- Jim O Doherty answered on 11 Mar 2013:
  
  Our method is slightly different from the other 2 answers, we inject a highly radioactive liquid into the patients arm. The drug is made in such a way (by very clever chemistry people!) that the liquid sticks to the tumour cells only. So its almost the inverse of Leila’s way, it destroys tumours from the inside out rather than the outside in!
- Dhvanil Karia answered on 11 Mar 2013:
  
  What Leila / Charlotte and Jim said are macro processes with which the cancer cells get killed with radiation. However, at the cellular level, what happens is that the x-rays/gamma rays/ beta particles given off by either the injected radioactive drug or the big linear accelerator machine are absorbed by the cells. As the energy of these rays is very high the cells die because of 2 processes….
  1) Ionization 2) Exication
  
  These excitations and ionizations can:
  
  >Produce free radicals. —– High energy ions which hit nearby cells like missiles
  >Break chemical bonds. —– Break the cells like a piece of glass
  >Damage molecules that regulate vital cell processes (e.g. DNA, RNA, proteins) —– Like malfunction of the temperature regulator in a chiller
  
  Any cell can repair certain levels of cell damage. At low doses, such as that received every day from background radiation, cellular damage is rapidly repaired. But at higher levels, cell death results. At extremely high doses (which is the case here), cells cannot be replaced quickly enough, and cancer tissues fail to function altogether and die.

Question: how do you kill cancercell with radiation

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