• Question: How does a doctor know whether to treat someone by radiotherapy or by chemotheraopy?

    Asked by georgiaandnatalie to Gioia, Iain, Jo, Leo, Mariam on 16 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Joanna Watson

      Joanna Watson answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      They do lots of tests to find out exactly what the cancer cells are like, how big the cancer is and whether is has spread around the body and they use that information to decide what the best treatment will be.

    • Photo: Mariam Orme

      Mariam Orme answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I’m not a doctor so I don’t know. But I imagine that different cancers are known to respond better to different treatments. Also, radiotherapy can only be used for tumours that are in one specific place, so you can blast that region of the body with radiation. If a tumour has spread a lot, radiotherapy is no good.

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