radiation therapy

radiation therapy, the use of ionizing radiation (high-energy radiation that displaces electrons from atoms and molecules) to destroy cancer cells.

Early developments in radiation therapy

Radiation has been present throughout the evolution of life on Earth. However, with the discovery of X-rays in 1895 by German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, and with the discovery of radioactivity by French physicist Henri Becquerel, the biological effects of radiation were recognized. In the early 20th century, ionizing radiation came into use to treat malignant (cancerous) and benign conditions. In 1922 at the Congress of Oncology in Paris, French radiation oncologist Henri Coutard presented the first evidence of the use of fractionated radiotherapy (radiation doses divided over the course of multiple treatments) to cure advanced cancer of the larynx (voice box) without significant deleterious side effects.

Ionizing radiation

Ionizing radiation is so named because its reaction with neutral atoms or molecules causes those atoms or groups of atoms to become ions, or electrically charged entities. Ionizing radiation includes both electromagnetic waves and particle radiation. Electromagnetic waves are the broad spectrum of waves that includes radio waves, microwaves, visible light, X-rays, and gamma rays. Particle radiation includes beams of subatomic particles, such as protons, alpha particles, beta particles, neutrons, and positrons, as well as heavier particles, such as carbon ions.

The forms of ionizing radiation relevant to the treatment of cancer are X-rays, gamma rays, and particulate radiation beams. Those forms of radiation are either directly ionizing or indirectly ionizing. Directly ionizing radiation (e.g., a beam of protons, alpha particles, or beta particles) causes direct disruption of the atomic or molecular structure of the tissue through which it passes. In contrast, indirectly ionizing radiation (e.g., electromagnetic waves and neutron beams) gives up energy as it passes through tissues, which results in the production of fast-moving particles that in turn cause damage to tissues. Included among the biochemical and molecular effects of ionizing radiation is the ability to cause breaks in the double-stranded DNA molecule in the cell nucleus. That causes the cancer cells to die and thus prevents their replication, thereby slowing the progression, or even causing the regression, of malignant disease.

Types of radiation therapy

In addition to treating cancer, radiation oncologists may use ionizing radiation to treat benign tumours that are unresectable (unable to be removed by surgery), such as certain types of tumours occurring in the brain (e.g., craniopharyngiomas and acoustic neuromas). Until the significant long-term consequences of ionizing radiation were recognized, radiation therapy was sometimes used for conditions such as acne, tinea capitis (ringworm of the scalp and nails), and lymph node enlargement, but those uses were abandoned following the discovery of ionizing radiation injury.

Early radiation therapy machines produced X-rays that were in the orthovoltage range (between about 140 and 400 kilovolts). That treatment caused serious and often intolerable skin burns. Modern radiation therapy machines produce beams that are in the high-energy megavoltage range (more than 1,000 kilovolts), which allows the beam to penetrate tissues and treat deep-seated tumours. The dose to the skin, however, is lower than with orthovoltage treatment.

The majority of modern radiation therapy treatments are external beam teletherapy, or long-distance therapy (sometimes also called external beam radiotherapy). External beam machines produce ionizing radiation either by radioactive decay of a nuclide, most commonly cobalt-60, or through the acceleration of electrons or other charged particles, such as protons. Most radiation therapy treatments use irradiation generated by linear accelerators, which impart a series of relatively small increases in energy to particles such as protons, carbon ions, or neutrons. The accelerated particles bombard a target, which then produces the therapeutic beam of radiation. The energy of the beam is determined by the energy of the accelerated particles. Two commonly used approaches to external beam teletherapy are intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and particle beam therapy.

Are you a student?

Get a special academic rate on Britannica Premium.

Subscribe

Particle beam therapy

Charged particle beams (e.g., proton beams) are also ionizing radiation that is used in cancer treatment. The depth of penetration of the particles into the body is determined by the energy of the incoming particle beam. Protons and relatively heavy ion beams (such as carbon ions) deposit more energy as they go deeper into the body, increasing to a sharp maximum at the end of their range, where residual energy is lost over a very short distance. That results in a steep rise in the absorbed dose, known as the Bragg peak. Beyond the Bragg peak there is a rapid falloff of the dose to zero.

Although the Bragg peak generally is very narrow, it can be spread out to cover a longer distance. The distribution of the radiation dose delivered in a proton beam in the body is characterized by a lower dose in the normal tissue proximal to the tumour, a high and uniform dose region at the tumour site, and zero dose beyond the tumour—in contrast to photon radiation, where the ionizing radiation energy passes through the normal tissue beyond the tumour.

The absence of an exit dose of protons makes proton beam therapy preferable for many situations in which a tumour is adjacent to a critical structure, such as the spinal cord, which cannot tolerate high doses of ionizing radiation, or in the treatment of children, in whom avoiding normal tissues significantly decreases the long-term side effects of radiation therapy. Other particle beams, such as carbon ion beams, show similar physical advantages to protons in that they may be more effective against certain slow-growing tumours.