April 15 to 21, 2022 is the 28th National Cancer Prevention Awareness Week. The theme of this year’s awareness week is “Early Action for Cancer Prevention and Control”, which aims to actively advocate everyone Be the first responsible person for your own health, correctly understand cancer, actively prevent and control cancer, establish the concept of tertiary cancer prevention, practice a healthy and civilized lifestyle, take the initiative to participate in cancer prevention health examinations, and achieve early prevention, early detection, and early diagnosis , early treatment, reduce cancer morbidity and mortality, improve cancer early diagnosis rate and survival rate, effectively curb the harm of cancer, and improve the health of the people.

Speaking of radiation therapy, it is always taboo. This sharp weapon is mainly used in the clinical treatment of malignant tumors, and it is also one of the main treatment methods for malignant tumor patients. According to statistics, about 65~75% of malignant tumor patients have received radiation therapy during the treatment process. As early as 1896, Roentgen used radiotherapy to treat the first tumor patient. After more than 100 years of continuous changes, with the development and progress of science and technology, radiotherapy has developed into the era of precise treatment, which can complete accurate and efficient tumor treatment and reduce the damage to the human body as much as possible.

1. What is radiotherapy?

Strictly speaking, radiotherapy should be called radiotherapy, which is a local treatment method using X-rays, gamma rays, electron rays, etc. Tissue, due to the biological effect of radiation, can kill cancer cells to the greatest extent, thereby destroying the cancer tissue and making it smaller.

We often say that “radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery” are listed as the three major methods of malignant tumor treatment. Although we often say “radiotherapy and chemotherapy”, many friends may not be able to distinguish the difference between radiotherapy and chemotherapy, thinking that it is the same thing, and it will cause great damage to the body. But in fact, tumor chemotherapy is the application of chemical drugs (including endocrine drugs) to treat malignant tumors. Anticancer drugs are quickly distributed throughout the body after entering the body, which can kill both local tumors and distant metastatic tumors. Therefore, chemotherapy is a systemic treatment.

The effect of chemotherapy depends on the type and condition of the tumor, some are curable, others are more inhibiting the growth and spread of the tumor; but radiotherapy, like surgery, is a “Topical” means of treatment. It’s just that surgery uses a scalpel to cut the tumor out of the body, while radiotherapy uses rays to “barbecue” the local tissue, allowing the tissue to necrosis under the irradiation of the rays, so as to achieve the purpose of destroying the tumor.

2. How are tumors killed by radiation?

Many people will be concerned, how can a tumor in the body be killed by radiation? Will it be painful? In fact, no, radiotherapy is like going to work. Every week from Monday to Friday, I go to the hospital machine to lie down for a few minutes, and rest on weekends. Depending on the number of radiotherapy (10 to 30 times), it ranges from half a month to one and a half months.

This classic radiotherapy model is mainly based on the biological behavior of the tumor. However, with the development of precision radiotherapy, the protection of normal tissue is more adequate. After the recurrence of the tumor at the same site, radiotherapy can also be repeated, but it still depends on the actual situation of the specific tumor, disease stage, radiotherapy interval, etc., generally at least one year apart.

The process of radiotherapy is actually a process of spotlighting. The machine around the human body will release thousands of rays of light from all directions of the body to the location of the tumor. . Although the force of each ray is weak, the trickle releases a waterfall of force as they converge on the tumor.

3. How long does it take for radiation therapy to work?

Generally, radiation therapy does not kill tumor cells immediately, and radiation therapy can Days or weeks later, cancer cells begin to die. Weeks or months after radiotherapy ends, tumor cells will continue to die and the tumor will continue to shrink. Generally speaking, the efficacy of radiotherapy should be reviewed one month after the end of radiotherapy. The final curative effect.

4. Can radiotherapy be combined with other methods for anti-tumor treatment?

The answer is yes, radiation therapy usually needs to be given at the same time as other anti-tumor treatments. For example: radiation therapy can be combined with surgery. Radiation therapy can be given before, during, or after surgery. Doctors may give radiation therapy before surgery To shrink tumor lesions, radiotherapy can also be used after surgery to kill residual cancer cells. Radiation therapy during surgery can avoid the skin and directly irradiate tumor lesions, which is called intraoperative radiation. Similarly, radiation therapy can also be combined with chemotherapy to fight tumors Treatment. Radiation therapy can be used before, during or after chemotherapy. Before or during chemotherapy, radiation therapy can shrink tumor lesions and enhance the effect of chemotherapy. After chemotherapy, radiation therapy can be used to kill residual cancer cells and reduce tumors. There is a chance of recurrence. Of course, radiation therapy combined with targeted and immunotherapy can also achieve good results.

Any treatment measures will bring damage to the normal tissues of the body while treating the disease. Different degrees of injury, radiotherapy, as a local treatment method, will inevitably cause certain damage to surrounding normal tissues. Radiotherapy may cause adverse reactions such as loss of appetite, fatigue, nausea and vomiting. The patients can be relieved after symptomatic treatment.

In addition, radiotherapy reactions may occur due to different radiotherapy sites, such as radiation skin damage, radiation stomatitis, radiation pneumonitis, radiation esophagitis, radiation Enteritis, radiation cystitis, etc., most of the above adverse reactions can be recovered after symptomatic treatment.

With the advancement of radiotherapy technology and the continuous updating of radiotherapy equipment, the current precision radiotherapy can more effectively and effectively increase the dose of the target area, and the surrounding tumor The radiation dose to normal tissues has been greatly reduced, and the side injury of radiotherapy has been significantly reduced, and doctors can control the implementation of radiotherapy under the condition that the patient can tolerate it.

The correct choice of radiotherapy timing and precise radiotherapy plan can provide the greatest assistance for tumor treatment. Make good use of radiotherapy, a sharp weapon against cancer, and you can achieve victory against cancer as soon as possible!

[Expert in this issue]

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Wang Lijun, Chief Physician and Director of the Second Department of Radiotherapy, Shenyang Fifth People’s Hospital. He is the executive director and secretary of the Tumor Targeted Therapy Professional Committee of the Cell Biology Society of Liaoning Province, a director of the Life Care Association, a member of the Anti-Cancer Association, a director of the Radiotherapy Special Committee of the Anti-Cancer Association, and a member of the Shenyang Health Education Expert Bank. He has been engaged in radiotherapy for malignant tumors for more than 20 years, and has extensive clinical experience in the diagnosis and treatment of nasopharyngeal cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, gastric cancer, colorectal cancer and brain metastases. He has rich experience in the treatment of advanced malignant tumors, and uses the treatment plan flexibly to achieve individualized tumor treatment, and carry out standardized treatment of cancer pain.