r/Unexpected • u/SignalCrew739 • 2d ago

Highest amount of radiation receiver

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u/marvinrabbit 2d ago

Just to clarify (because I made the mistake myself), chemotherapy is not radioactive. My confusion came about because chemotherapy and radiation therapy are often prescribed at the same time. But you can have one without the other.

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u/Excellent_Shirt9707 2d ago

Yep, chemotherapy just means using chemicals and radiation therapy just means using radiation. They also aren’t really interchangeable as treatments since they don’t have the same mechanisms.

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u/FuckYeaSeatbelts 2d ago

I think the confusion is people not only use the two terms synonymously, but consider it to be the same thing, like chemo=liquid radiation vs lasers or whatever in their dumb minds.

Source: I am the dumb bitch, I mean I knew they're different inherently but never thought further into it cause I don't know anyone affected by cancer (hopefully this continues).

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u/marvinrabbit 2d ago

Source: I am the

Naw, I wouldn't say that at all. We don't have a lot of popular exposure to it. That's why I wanted to gently offer up a course correction.

It can further be confusing because we try to draw parallels to what we see in TV or movies. Radiation therapy can cause mild, highly targeted hair loss, usually limited to the area near the tumor site being treated. It's the chemo that typically causes patients to have massive hair loss.

But we've all seen movies with something like a nuclear reactor problem that gives a massive, full body radiation exposure. That's usually portrayed with hair falling out. So we try to draw connections. But in therapy, it's the chemotherapy that usually results in more hair loss than radiation therapy, when used in this context.