What is the Difference Between Chemotherapy and Radiation?

@turquoise-- Breast cancer patients may receive both chemotherapy and radiation. My grandmother first received chemotherapy followed by a week of radiation.

I don't know if radiation therapy side effects differ from person to person. But my aunt said that radiation therapy was much better than chemotherapy. She was a little tired but it was nothing compared to chemotherapy where she was vomiting and sleepy all the time.

@turquoise-- I guess it is a little complicated.

But what you said in the last part is correct. Chemotherapy runs through the entire system and it will kill more healthy cells than radiation because radiation is targeted to exactly where the cancer cells are and will not effect other areas.

It does appear that radiation would be better, but the advantage of chemotherapy is that the medications which are used are very specific to that individual's disease. Doctors are able to select a combination of medications based on how far along the cancer has gotten, where it is located and so forth. That kind of detailing is not possible with radiation, it's the same general treatment for everybody.

I don't know where I got this idea from but I had the misconception that chemotherapy is also a kind of radiation treatment. In fact, I thought that this was the reason why chemotherapy patients lose their hair. I was not aware that they're completely different methods of killing cancer cells.

Even though both try to achieve the same thing through different means, I personally find them both unimpressive. Chemotherapy sounds more dangerous than radiation because how can you possibly target an area by injecting chemicals into the blood stream?

With radiation, we could at least apply the radiation to the region where cancer is present right? Wouldn't chemotherapy lead to the death of more healthy cells than radiation?

Maybe chemotherapy would be better for something like leukemia where the entire blood stream is cancerous whereas radiation would be better for something like breast cancer. But as far as I know, most breast cancer patients receive chemotherapy and not radiation. Why is this? Is it just about the side effects?

When my mother-in-law was diagnosed with colon cancer, she went through weeks of chemotherapy treatment.

I think she experienced every possible chemotherapy side effect you could have. This was a very hard and miserable time for her.

The only positive thing she said was that when her hair grew back, it was a lot thicker than it had ever been before.

After a couple of years, her cancer returned. There was no way she was going to put herself through those chemotherapy treatments again.

Even though we wanted to be selfish and keep her around as long as possible, I can understand her thinking.

The doctor said if she didn't take any treatments she would have about 6 months to live. That is all the time we had left with her, as she passed away almost 6 months to the day of that second diagnosis.

@LisaLou - I also had a friend that was diagnosed with breast cancer, but she went through radiation therapy for her breast cancer.

It must depend on the type of cancer you have and how far it has progressed. She had several weeks of pretty intense radiation treatments.

Her biggest complaint was how tired she felt after about 2 weeks. That was the only radiation side effect she really complained about. Other than that, she didn't feel nauseated or have some of the other side effects you get with chemotherapy.

Everybody handles these treatments differently. I had another friend who had both chemotherapy and radiation treatments for sinus cancer, and she never completely lost all of her hair.

She experienced most all the other adverse side effects, but never had to wear the wig she bought ahead of time.

I have had friends and family members that have been through both chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

It seems like those that I am familiar with, have had more chemo side effects than from the radiation.

When my friend received chemotherapy for breast cancer, she lost all of her hair. She was also very sick to her stomach, tired and just had no energy the whole time.

There were many times she wondered if the treatment was really worth it. She tried to keep a positive attitude, and so far has been able to beat it.

She can really sympathize with people who are going through this type of treatment.

I have often said that if I ever found out I had cancer, I would refuse chemotherapy and radiation treatment. I have seen how sick it makes a person, and I wouldn't want what could be my last few months alive to be spent in misery.

Also, it seems like this treatment could kill people. Since it kills all kinds of cells, couldn't it easily kill you altogether?

I know that you can survive cancer with treatment, but I have also known so many people who died in spite of it. I wouldn't want to make myself so sick that I would want to die. I think I would rather pass on naturally than go through all that medical trauma.

My cousin is undergoing chemotherapy now to treat breast cancer. Next year, she will be receiving radiation treatment. I did not know that you could get both until she told me this.

She does not yet know how radiation will affect her, but the chemotherapy has made her very ill. She used to walk down the road every day for exercise, and she hasn't been able to do this in months.

She is so nauseated that she just stays in bed most days. She has lost her hair, so she doesn't feel like going out in public, anyway.