Radiation therapy presents a common treatment for breast cancer. During treatment, doctors aim a very high dose of radiation into the entire breast, or into specific regions of cancer development within the breast. The high dose of radiation targets the cancer cells while leaving the surrounding tissue relatively unaffected, in an effort to kill cancer cells in one region of the body. Radiation treatment has a number of effects on breast cancer that make it an effective cancer treatment.
Cancer Cell Damage
The immediate effect of radiation treatment on breast cancer is cancer cell damage. During radiation treatment, cancer cells within the breast are exposed to a very high dose of radiation, which has an effect on structures within the cell. The cells' DNA, the blueprint from which cells make the chemicals necessary for life, becomes damaged when exposed to radiation, according to BreastCancer.org. This damage leads to a number of mistakes in the genetic code, and prevents the cell from making proteins it needs to grow.
Radiation also interacts with water in the breast cancer cells, leading to the formation of reactive oxygen species. Although similar to water, reactive oxygen species have the ability to interact with proteins, fats and DNA within the cell, causing cellular damage. Together, DNA damage and the formation of reactive oxygen species cause irreparable damage to breast cancer cells during treatment.
Tumor Shrinkage and Remission
Following radiation treatment, the damage to breast cancer cells leads to cell death. Since the cell can no longer effectively make the proteins required for growth and survival, the cell eventually starves and dies, and the dead cell is reabsorbed by the body.
Following treatment, waves of cancer cell death leads to an overall decrease in the size of the tumor. With successive radiation treatments over the course of weeks, patients experience a progressive decrease in the size of their cancerous breast tumor and may eventually experience breast cancer remission.
Preventing Breast Cancer Recurrence
Radiation therapy may also have an effect on decreasing the chance of breast cancer recurrence, especially combined with other breast cancer treatments. Doctors commonly perform radiation therapy after breast-conserving breast cancer surgeries, since the radiation can damage and kill cancer cells remaining after surgery, protecting against cancer recurrence. BreastCancer.org indicates that radiation therapy can decrease the risk of breast cancer recurrence by around 70 percent. This effect of radiation treatment allows for shorter patient recovery, while still providing effective breast cancer treatment, ultimately increasing patient quality of life.
