Having radiotherapy

When you might have radiotherapy

Radiotherapy is a common treatment for people with cancer. The two main reasons for having radiotherapy are to either try to cure cancer or to help control symptoms.

When you have radiotherapy

Whether you have radiotherapy as part of your treatment depends on what type of cancer you have, how big it is and whether it has spread or not.

Radiotherapy is good at treating certain cancers, whilst some are more resistant to radiation. This means radiotherapy would have less of an effect on these cancers.

Radiotherapy only treats the area of the body that it is aimed at. It is a local treatment.

You might have radiotherapy:

before surgery
after surgery
with chemotherapy or other drug treatment
on its own
to the whole body as part of a stem cell transplant (total body irradiation)

Treatment that aims to cure cancer

You often have radiotherapy with other treatments, such as surgery or chemotherapy. Radiotherapy that aims to cure cancer is called radical or curative radiotherapy.

Your course of treatment depends on the size and type of the cancer. And where it is in your body.

Read about other treatments for cancer

Controlling symptoms

Some people have radiotherapy to relieve symptoms, such as pain. This is called palliative treatment.

You might have emergency radiotherapy to help control certain symptoms. This means you have treatment within 24 hours of being diagnosed.

You might have treatment on one day or for up to 2 weeks. But this can vary.

Before surgery

You might have radiotherapy before surgery to shrink the cancer. This can make it easier to remove. For some people it will mean that surgery becomes possible, when before it wasn't.

This is called neo adjuvant treatment or pre operative radiotherapy.

After surgery

Radiotherapy after surgery aims to kill any cancer cells that remain in the area after the operation. This is to try to lower the risk of the cancer coming back.

It is called adjuvant treatment or post operative radiotherapy.

Combining radiotherapy with cancer drugs

Chemotherapy can be given before, during or after a course of radiotherapy. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy given together is called chemoradiotherapy.

Sometimes radiotherapy needs to be given at a certain time before or after chemotherapy. This often happens if you are taking part in a clinical trial.

Targeted cancer drugs can be given with radiotherapy to treat some types of cancer.

Total body irradiation (TBI)

Total body irradiation (TBI) is another type of radiotherapy. It is sometimes given to people having a stem cell or bone marrow transplant. This is usually for some types of leukaemia or lymphoma.

You have radiation to the whole body with chemotherapy. The treatment destroys the bone marrow cells.

You then have new stem cells put into your bloodstream. The stem cells are either your own or from someone else (a donor).

Where you go for radiotherapy

You usually have radiotherapy as an outpatient, which means travelling each day to the radiotherapy department at your nearest cancer centre or unit.

Radiotherapy to relieve symptoms

Radiotherapy for symptoms or palliative treatment aims to shrink a cancer, slow down its growth and control symptoms.

Total body irradiation (TBI)

Radiotherapy to the whole body is called total body irradiation or TBI.

Bone marrow and stem cell transplants

Stem cell or bone marrow transplants are treatments for some types of cancer including leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma. You have them with high dose chemotherapy and sometimes radiotherapy.

Treatment for cancer

Treatments can include surgery, radiotherapy and drug treatments (such as chemotherapy, hormone therapy or targeted cancer drugs). Find out about treatments and how to cope with side effects.

Radiotherapy main page

Find out about cancer treatment with radiotherapy, including external radiotherapy, internal radiotherapy, side effects, radiotherapy for symptoms and follow up after treatment.