Radiation therapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses beams or particles of energy to kill cancer cells and/or reduce tumor size. Radiation therapy damages cells by affecting the genetic material that controls how cells grow and divide. Even though healthy cells are sometimes destroyed during radiation therapy, the ultimate goal is to target cancerous cells only.

Aradhana Kaushal, M.D., is a staff clinician in NCI’s Radiation Oncology Branch and her work focuses on radiation treatment for prostate and pediatric cancers. Benchmarks talked with Dr. Kaushal about radiation therapy and discussed some of the techniques that are being studied at NIH.