Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are both traditional methods. What is the difference?

Chemotherapy refers to the use of chemical drugs to kill tumor cells. Chemotherapeutic drugs are divided into oral chemotherapy drugs and intravenous chemotherapy drugs, and the latter is the main one. The advantage of chemotherapy is that chemotherapy drugs will enter the blood circulation, not only killing the lesions, but also killing most tumor cells all over the body. Therefore, the side effects are relatively large, and doctors will take a series of measures to prevent or alleviate the side effects. At the same time, the doctor will also tell you some details that you need to pay attention to in your life, such as eating lightly, keeping your stool unobstructed, ensuring sleep, and using drugs to assist sleep when necessary. Some chemotherapy drugs need to drink plenty of water to prevent kidney damage after use, some chemotherapy drugs need to supplement vitamins and folic acid regularly, and some chemotherapy drugs need to keep their limbs warm. Some chemotherapy drugs do not need special attention. It is very important to listen to the doctor's advice carefully and communicate with him about his chemotherapy feelings in time.

Radiotherapy refers to killing cancer cells with radiation first, eliminating tumors, prolonging the survival time of patients and improving the quality of life. Radiotherapy is a local treatment with relatively few side effects. According to the patient's condition, radiotherapy can be used alone or in combination with chemotherapy. It lasts for a few minutes every day for about 40 days, depending on the patient's condition. The side effects of radiotherapy are less and lighter than chemotherapy, mainly fatigue, laryngeal edema, cough, fever, chest pain, stomach discomfort and so on. Similarly, doctors will take a series of measures to prevent these side effects.

The difference between chemotherapy and radiotherapy:

(1) Scope of action: radiotherapy is local and chemotherapy is systemic.

(2) Time: radiotherapy for more than a few minutes and chemotherapy for several hours.

(3) Administration mode: radiotherapy is physical therapy and radiation irradiation; Chemotherapy is oral or drip, etc.

(4) Side effects: As for which is more painful, radiotherapy or chemotherapy, this is not absolute. But relatively speaking, radiotherapy is a local pain, and chemotherapy has more systemic pain, so chemotherapy is more painful than radiotherapy.