22 October 2025

For the first time, the Journal of Medical Radiation Sciences has published an article analysing the perceptions of radiation and radiation therapy in particular, in a range of art forms.

Its authors say understanding how patients perceive radiation, including in popular culture, may lead to new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches that “address and reduce fear, improving quality of life and quality of medical care, via medical and psychological methods.”

"Patient perceptions of radiation influence both uptake and adherence to radiation therapy," they say.

Radiation in music

The paper lists three creative representations of radiation in music:

• Kraftwerk’s album Radio-activity (1975)
  Songs include "Geiger Counter", "Uranium" and "Radioactivity".
  
• Lou Reed’s song Sword of Damocles (1992)
  Reed sings about radiation therapy, having seen two of his friends treated for cancer. Lyrics include:
  "Radiation kills both bad and good, it can not differentiate"
  
• Sheryl Crow’s Make It Go Away (Radiation Song) (2018)
  Crow sings about her experience of receiving radiation therapy for breast cancer.

Radiation in novels

The paper lists several novels that explicitly portray radiation, including:

• The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann (1924)
  The main character, Hans Carstorp, undergoes X-ray imaging and is diagnosed with tuberculosis.
• Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1972)
  Set in 1955, this semi-autobiographical novel describes the journeys of cancer patients in the former USSR republics of Central Asia.
• The Book About Blanche and Marie by Per Olov Enquist (2004)
  A novel about physicist Marie Curie and one of her assistants, Blanche Whitman.
• In Gratitude by Jenny Diski (2016)
  Diski writes about her own experience of receiving radiation treatment for lung cancer.

Radiation in movies

The paper lists only two movies where a main character receives radiation therapy, with each instance only depicted on screen for a few seconds.

• The Doctor (1991)
  A surgeon who lacks compassion for his patients begins to see things from their point of view after being diagnosed with laryngeal cancer. Radiation therapy is part of his emotional journey.
• Shadowlands (1993)
  In this biographical film, Jewish-American poet Joy Davidman falls in love with writer CS Lewis and later undergoes radiation therapy for metastatic breast cancer.

More artworks, including paintings and poems, can be found in Healing beams: radiation and radiation therapy in novels, poems, music, film, painting published in the JMRS. It was written by Ad Kaptein, Jan Schoones, Yvette van der Linden and Brian Hughes.