WHY CANT WE CURE ALL CANCER WITH RADIATION? – THE REACTION OF NORMAL TISSUE LIMITS THE SAFE DOSE (CONCLUSION)
Don’t forget that the average doses that can safely be given and the average doses that will destroy particular types of cancer are just that: average. They are not doses which can be guaranteed to produce the same result in every person. Some people’s tumours are less sensitive than average. Some patients’ tissues are more sensitive than average. This means that radiation fails to cure some people of cancers which are usually curable. Sometimes this is simply because their tumour is less sensitive than average—a dose that would cure most people is not effective. Sometimes it is because the usual dose cannot safely be given because the person’s; tissues cannot take it.
On the whole, healthy tissues can take more radiation than tissues that are scarred, infected or otherwise diseased. As a rule, the tissues of older people can take less radiation than those of younger people, because they tend to have less ability to heal, a poorer blood supply and so on. Tissues that have previously been exposed to the average safe dose of radiation can never safely be re-treated, not even many years later, because the effects of radiation are permanent. Some chemotherapy drugs increase the sensitivity of some normal tissues to radiation. A dose of radiation that is normally safe can produce some serious reactions in people having these particular drugs. Thus there are many factors which can make a usually effective and safe dose of radiation unsafe for some individuals. These should all be considered by your radiotherapist when treatment is planned.
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