Due to their favourable properties such as high dose localization and high RBE heavy-ion beams have attracted increasing interest in cancer treatment. Efforts to exploit these advantages to the maximum extent in cancer therapy have never been given up. A new idea of applying a radioactive ion beam with beta-delayed particle decay such as 9C or 8B to cancer therapy is put forward in this paper. A model to evaluate the biological effect in terms of cell survival induced by the emitted particles from the decays of the stopped ions has been established. Because of the difference of the internally emitted particle irradiation from the external ion beam, the microdosimetric quantity such as specific energy is applied to evaluate the cell surviving effect induced by the emitted particles from the decays of the radioactive ions. Within the framework of this model, the cell-killing effects resulting from the emitted particles were calculated under different conditions. Finally, the potential application of the radioactive ion beam 9C in cancer therapy is demonstrated.