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Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with cytotoxic, or anti-cancer, drugs. It is often given to cancer patients along with other treatments. It is used to help cure cancer, prevent cancer from spreading, slow cancer growth, and relieve symptoms of cancer. However, because it may also harm healthy cells, there are many side effects of chemotherapy treatment.

The drugs in chemotherapy work by interfering with the cancer cell’s cycle of growth and division. When it can no longer grow and divide, the cancer cell dies. The drugs also have similar effects on normal cells, but these healthy cells usually are able to repair damage caused by the drugs, which cancer cells are unable to do. Because there are many different kinds of cancers, there are also many different types of drugs. Often, the treatment is more effective when two or more drugs are used together. This type of chemotherapy is called combination chemotherapy. The chemotherapy drugs are usually administered through two types of flexible tubes. The first is called a semipermanent catheter which is placed in a large vein, and the second is a smaller, temporary, intravenous catheter which is used with smaller veins. More rarely, chemotherapy drugs can be given orally, or can be injected into a muscle or just under the skin.

Chemotherapy can be used during a few different points in a patient’s cancer treatment. Its first use could be before an operation, where it is used to shrink a tumor to facilitate its removal. This is called neo-adjuvant therapy. Chemotherapy can also be given after an operation to destroy any individual cancer cells that may not have been removed through surgery. When chemotherapy is administered at this time, it is known as adjuvant therapy. Chemoradiotherapy is the treatment that combines chemotherapy and radiotherapy, where x-rays and other photons are used to destroy cancer cells. When the cancer has spread to different tissues and is in an advanced stage, chemotherapy is used to try to kill as many cancer cells as possible and ease some of the symptoms of the cancer. Chemotherapy is also used in certain types of cancers which require a bone marrow transplant because they have a high risk of developing again. High doses of chemotherapy are given to destroy bone marrow cells, and then new bone marrow cells are given to the patient from stem cells collected from the patient or from a donor.

The side effects of chemotherapy vary greatly. This is because each drug is different, and will have different consequences in the body. Also, each person is different, so one’s reactions to the drugs will not necessarily be the same as someone else’s reactions. Most often, the places where healthy cells grow are affected the most. These include the lining of the mouth, the digestive system, the skin, hair and bone marrow. Some common side effects include fatigue, a weakening of the immune system, an alteration of kidney function, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, diarrhea, constipation, mouth ulcers, hair loss, dryness or discoloration of skin, tingling, numbness, anxiety, restlessness, dizziness, sleepiness, headaches, and hearing loss. However, most of these side effects are only temporary and will disappear when treatment ends.