When patients find out that they have cancer, they tell …show more content…
It can also be given in the form of tablets because a few chemotherapy drugs are only available in tablet form. Chemotherapy targets the dividing cells by making them stop dividing and self-destruct. Both the normal cells and cancerous cells are changed, but normal cells are able to recover. The treatments are given over a specific number of courses that kill more cancer cells each time. Normal cells are affected by the rapid turnover because they are allowed to recover between the cycles of chemotherapy …show more content…
The only problem with radiation is that both normal and cancerous cell are killed. The people who administer the radiation carefully control the doses so the normal cells have a chance to recover while cancerous cells do not recover from the assault. Radiation causes side-effecting such as scarring the tissue of normal cells, but it also tries to destroy remaining cancer cells. The radiation team uses X-rays and CT scans to help target the area where the radiation is needed. The radiation oncologist will mark the area that needs to be treated with ink and a small tattoo was that the radiation will be administered each type. Radiation treatment only lasts a few minutes, but the patient is required to stay in the hospital for about half an hour for preparation for treatment. Every week a doctor will check the patient’s progress, and check to see if the treatments need to be delayed due to skin reactions