Question: what treatment do you mostly talk about?

Julie Speakman answered on 10 Nov 2013:

hi chloe
I work with what are called Molecular Radiotherapy or Radionuclide Therapy treatments. Radiation is really useful for treating lots of diseases including many types of cancer but it is hard to get the radiation to exactly the right place, without damaging the healthy parts of the body. We try and attach radiation to a chemical that we know is used by a particular part of the body so that we can get the radiation to where we want it to go….kind of like an undercover agent like james bond!?
The treatment we do most uses something called radioactive iodine. The only part of the body that really absorbs iodine is the thyroid gland (have you heard of the thyroid? it is in your neck). This means we know if we give radioactive iodine to someone it will go to their thyroid gland, so it is a really good way of treating diseases like thyroid cancer. We give it to patients as a capsule, which they swallow with water. There are often hardly any side effects but the patient will be radioactive for a while. The radiation is doing them some good but people around them won’t feel this benefit! So they have to stay in a special room in hospital on their own for a few days. Some people find this really hard so I try and help them through it.
Ask me again if you’re not sure what I’m on about!
Julie