Difference Between Radiation and Chemotherapy
With so many diseases that prevail all around us these days, cancer one of the most problematic one. Scientists and doctors have been trying to find out many ways to cure this disease for past many decades. Although they have been unable to find vaccinations to cure cancer, yet there are other methods that the doctors employ to treat people suffering from cancer, after they have been detected with the disease. Two such methods are Chemotherapy and Radiation. In spite of the fact that these two methods are curative methods of the same disease, yet there are a lot of differences between the same, thus the different names. However I many instances, both these methods need to be employed together during the surgery in order to completely eradicate cancer from the person’s body.
As the name suggests, chemotherapy is the method in which certain chemicals are used to kill the cancer cells in the body of the person. On the other hand Radiation deals with the application of electromagnetic radiations, to which the affected part of the patient’s body is subjected. Since living cells die in the presence of high electromagnetic radiations, this exposure results in the killing of cancerous cells. In case of chemotherapy, the doctors administer the drugs either orally of with the help of injections. In case of radiations, instead of exposing the affected part directly to the radiations, the doctors may also insert radioactive material inside the body of the patient.
There are several pros and cons of these methods too. Where on one hand, the patient has the liberty of undergoing the treatment even from his home, by regular intake of prescribed drugs, on the other hand, he has to make regular visits to the clinic at regular intervals in order to get the radiations. Even the side effects of the two treatment methods are different. On one hand where Radiation causes problems like irritation, allergy, itching, blisters, Chemotherapy causes problems like vomiting, fatigue, nausea, pain, hair loss etc.