Usually radiation pose the normal cell to mutate and extensively show other harmful effects, then how it can be better or have an edge over the chemotherapy?
@ Loannis and daniel thanks for the answer
but what if we inject or use the chemotherapeutic agent via topical application, in that condition its localized application edge will diminish.
Each strategy is used for different purpose.
To be precise radiotherapy is used for local advance control of the disease and chemotherapy is used for decrease the disseminate cells that may spread.
Radio therapy is based mainly to production of free radicals intracelularly in cancer cells and cause cell death but there is no bystander activity when chemotherapy is used multiple biocehmical ways (alkyliation, DNA anealing process, nucleotide needs, spindle formation and stability etc) to to inhibit the endless trend to cell replication mainly.
The main advantage of radiation is that it is targeted to a specific location, so you don't kill the blood progenitors and intestinal cells. Therefore it can be much more drastic. the inconvenient is that you cannot cure disseminated or deeply located cancers.
@ Loannis and daniel thanks for the answer
but what if we inject or use the chemotherapeutic agent via topical application, in that condition its localized application edge will diminish.
What you think is very rational and in the past it has been used as a strategy to develop locoregional chemotherapy using stop flow methodologies. But as usual in clinical reality there were main problems of severe side effects due to release of the liquid that allow stop flow conditions (lipiodol etc). The other is that since high dosage of chemo is itroduced these ammount is released immediately after the effect of lipiodol. The third issues was that the majority of the chemotheray drugs they are in a form of prodrugs and they need to be activated in oher organs like liver, intestine etc. Hence it is very diddicult to achieve cytotoxic effect with locoregional application.
The type of cancer would dictate which avenue for treatment would be best. Depending on whether the cancer is localized or metastasize will dictate treatment protocol; chemo better for systemic treatment and radiation better for localized cancers cases.
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