Chemotherapy

Even though chemotherapy can be used as a general term for the medicines used in the treatment of cancer, the term is normally used to denote the treatment of cancer by the usage of high intense cytotoxic drugs. A large number of chemotherapy drugs are available in the market.

Medicines that are composed of the sex hormones oestrogen and testosterone can be used for the treatment of breast cancer. But the term hormone therapy drugs are more commonly used for such medicines.

Chemotherapy is normally used after the patient has undergone surgery or radiotherapy. Chemotherapy is usually done for the destruction of any left over cancerous cells. It also helps to prevent the recurring of cancer. If total recovery is not possible, chemotherapy will help in the reduction of symptoms.

Working of chemotherapy

The cytotoxic drugs are the drugs which are designed in such a way so that it damages the cancerous cells than affecting the healthy cells because the medicines used for treating cancer will be able to differentiate the healthy cells and the cancerous cells.

The cancerous cells multiply in a very rapid and uncontrolled manner. Chemotherapy interferes with the reproductive ability of the cancerous cells. Then it starts the destruction the cancerous cells.

How is it done

The administration of chemotherapy depends on the nature of cancer the person suffers from. Chemotherapy is also dependent on the medicines that are used for treatment of cancer. The normal method of administering chemotherapy drugs are giving it intravenously.

In certain cases, the drugs for administering chemotherapy are given in the form of

Capsules or tablets, i.e. in the oral form
intramuscular injection or IM injection as it is commonly known
Subcutaneous injections, where the injection are administered under the skin.
In normal cases, people need to spend only a few hours for undergoing chemotherapy at the hospital. But some people may be asked to have an overnight stay at the hospital for the treatment.

In other cases people are treated by administering the medicine through a tiny portable instrument, which will pump the medicine into the body through a vein’s opening.

A rest period is given to the patients for the recovery of the tissues as well as the normal cells. This is coined as the treatment cycle. Several cycles of treatment are required for completing the chemotherapy course.

Side effects of chemotherapy

In certain cases, the cytotoxic drugs may not be able to differentiate between the normal cells and the cancerous cells. In such cases, the rapid multiplication of normal cells can result in the chemotherapy drugs to destroy them instead of the cancerous cells.

This can result in damage of the cells that produce hairs, the bowel lining, the sexual glands and the tissues present in the bone marrow which produce the blood.

The most popular side effects associated with the use of chemotherapy are:.

• loss of hair
• tiredness
• vomitting and
• Myelosuppression, which is the suppression of the bone marrow.

But the side effects normally disappear once the chemotherapy is completed. The intensity of side effects depends on the treatment type and individual response to the treatment.