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Yes.

Ionizing radiation (high frequency ultraviolet rays, x-rays, and gamma rays) damages DNA.

Some viruses and mutagenic chemicals also damage DNA.

Typically a single photon or a single molecule damages only one small piece of DNA, and the rest of the DNA in the cell continues to operate normally.

When DNA is damaged, there are 4 possible effects:

(1)

Some DNA damage has no effect.

The vast majority of the time, DNA damage is repaired by specialized repair protiens.

Unrepairable mutation in "junk DNA" areas outside any of the roughly 20 000 genes in the DNA apparently has no effect on functioning the cell.

Unrepairable damage in any one of the roughly 20 000 genes in the DNA often has no effect on the functioning of the cell -- for example, muscle cells normally never produce insulin or hemoglobin or keratin, and so if a mutagen damages a muscle cell in the gene coding for any of those proteins, it has no effect.

(2)

Some kinds of DNA damage make it impossible for a cell to divide.

(3)

Some kinds of unrepairable damage more or less immediately kill the cell.

In some of these cases, DNA damage is recognized by the cell, and trigger apoptosis -- programmed cell death.

(4)

When unrepairable damage hits any part of the DNA that controls the correct timing of replication -- any of the tumor-suppressor genes -- then uncontrolled replication (cancer) can result.

Unfortunately, the DNA in cancer cells cannot be repaired.

The best we can do is try to stop the cancer cells before they cause more problems.

One way to do that is with ionizing radiation.

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14y ago
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Wiki User

12y ago

We all know that radiations slowly kills the cells therefore causing cancer. But you can also use radiation to slowly kill the cancer cells which can take 2-3 weeks.

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13y ago

Yes radiation can cure certain disease.

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Q: Radiation sometimes causes cancer but it can also be used to treat and cure cancer?
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