Radiation therapy is a common cancer treatment. Find out what happens during radiation therapy.
Radiation therapy — also called radiotherapy or X-ray therapy — involves treating cancer with beams of high-energy particles, or waves (radiation), such as gamma rays or X-rays. Radiation therapy damages cells by destroying the genetic material that controls how cells grow and divide. And while both healthy and cancerous cells are damaged by radiation therapy, the goal of treatment is to destroy as few normal, healthy cells as possible.
Last Updated: 07/20/2007
