But the same radiation that kills cancer cells can also destroy healthy ones, causing side effects such as nausea and vomiting, skin sores and rashes, and weakness and fatigue.

Conclusion: Hypoxic radiotherapy can alleviate the side-effect of the radiotherapy and reduce the rate of complication in the nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients.

Fortunately, smoking didn't appear to impact long-term GI side effects or genitourinary side-effects. These results underscore the importance of smoking cessation prior to radiation therapy.