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Ch. 24 - Cancer Genetics

Chapter 23, Problem 21

Radiotherapy (treatment with ionizing radiation) is one of the most effective current cancer treatments. It works by damaging DNA and other cellular components. In which ways could radiotherapy control or cure cancer, and why does radiotherapy often have significant side effects?

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Hello, everyone and welcome to today's video. Radiation therapy utilizes high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells or slow down the growth. Which of the following is a primary side effects of radiation therapy. Remember that these radiation therapy is, for example, going to affect the D N A of these mutated cells by doing so it is going to the ingredient which is eventually going to kill the cancer cell. Knowing that let's go over each of our answer choices so that we may solve the problem before all we have, it cannot kill the mutated cell. Now remember that in the problem, we're told that radiation therapy is primary, used to kill cancer cells or slow down their growth because of this, this is going to be incorrect and we're going to then we have big, it takes some time for it to reach the damage. So what radiation therapy is going to be acting extremely quick by going directly inside of the cells and affecting the structure because of this is going to be incorrect and we're going to deliver as well. And then we have the, it is effective for a few people only is also going to be incorrect. And it is the reason why chemotherapy is such a widely used type of radiation therapy because it is very effective because of this. We're going to be able to cancel this out. Finally, we have it damages healthy cells. We'll remember that right next to cancer cells, we're going to have healthy cells surrounding them by shooting this radiation inside of the cancer cells. We could also damage these healthy cells and create mutations or simply degrade them by using, by using these high doses of radiation. So this is a potential side effect of radiation therapy because of this. We're going to highlight answer choice. C as the final answer to your question, I really hope this helped you and I hope to see you on the next one.
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