Does the radiation affect other parts of my body beyond the treatment area?

No, it doesn’t. The radiation is localized to the treatment field. Outside of that field, the radiation intensity drops off to near zero. For practical purposes, areas of your body that are not in or immediately adjacent to the targeted site will not receive any meaningful radiation dose. For instance, if we’re treating a spot on your hand, the rest of your body (arm, torso, etc.) is not affected. If we treat your nose, your brain and internal organs get no exposure. We also shield as discussed above to ensure even scatter radiation (which is already minimal) is blocked. Think of shining a flashlight on a wall – the light mainly hits one spot and maybe a faint glow around; in radiation terms, we prevent even that faint glow from reaching other body parts by using shielding. The design of superficial radiation inherently means it doesn’t travel far. So you don’t have to worry about, say, “Will this cause any issue with my heart or lungs?” if we’re treating something on your chest – it won’t, because it doesn’t penetrate that deep or that far laterally. There is no cumulative effect on distant organs, and you won’t feel anything elsewhere. The only things that might happen outside the exact spot would be very localized – for example, just outside the margin of the radiation field you could see a bit of redness. But systemically or in unrelated body parts, there is no effect. This is why IG-SRT is considered such a focused treatment – it tackles the cancer right where it is and spares the rest of you entirely.