A. No, your child can not be harmed by being around or living with someone that is receiving radiation or any other treatment for lung cancer. The National Cancer Institute states that 'external radiation treatment does not make you radioactive.'
Patients receiving internal radiation can sometimes send 'its high energy rays outside' their body, and so that kind of cancer treatment is usually done in the hospital in a private room, at least 'for a few days while the radiation is most active.' And children under age 18 and pregnant women are usually not allowed to visit them in the hospital.
So if this cancer patient is already home, whether he is receiving external or internal radiation, he should pose no risk to your child. In fact, your child poses much more of a risk to that person being treated for cancer.
Persons being treated for cancer often have weakened immune systems and so are very susceptible to any infections. So if your child has a cold or the flu, he could be contagious and put the cancer patient at risk of getting sick. According to the American Cancer Society, that makes 'basic handwashing and hygiene practices for the patient and those they come in contact with' very important.
