UT Southwestern Radiation Oncology - What to Expect

Dr. Nina Sanford, M.D. explains how radiation therapy approaches are part of many cancer patients treatment care plan. She explains how radiation works and radiation therapy uses high doses of radiation to destroy cancer cells and shrink tumors by damaging their DNA. If the cancer cell’s DNA is damaged beyond repair, it stops dividing and/or slowly starts dying. The cancer cells take days or weeks to die and will continue to do so after radiation treatment is over.