My grandma had radiation treatments when she had cancer years ago. How does that help cancer?

A popular way of treating cancer is with radiation, frequently referred to as radiation therapy. It shrinks tumor size and eliminates cancer cells via high-energy radiation. The procedure is as follows.

• Damaging Cancer Cells: Cancer cells can't divide or grow because radiation breaks down their DNA. This damage can kill cancer cells.
• Fractionation: Radiation therapy often can be precisely aimed at the malignant part of the body. It serves to prevent the healthy cells around the tumor from suffering harm excessively.
• Different Types of Radiation: Radiation therapy is provided in insignificant doses periodically via an approach termed fractionation. This process lessens chances that cancerous cells will recover, but healthy cells may regenerate themselves during treatments.
• Adjunctive or Primary Treatment: There are in fact two forms of radiation therapy: outside radiation (external beam radiation) and inside radiation (radiation from a radioactive material put into the body near the tumor). The type used varies by the type of cancer, its position, and the patient's entire situation.
• Adjunctive or Primary Treatment: Radiation therapy is employed for treating cancer in two distinct methods: alone or in combination with other treatments such as surgery or chemotherapy.

The goals of radiation therapy are symptom relief, tumor shrinkage, and a decrease in cancer progression rate by the selective destruction of cancer cells with little damage to healthy tissue.