Chemotherapy is a required action that cancer patients should take depending on the stage of the disease to stop the cancer cells from growing and spreading.
This is a special process specifically tailored for treating people with cancers. Since cancer cells can rapidly reproduce they need to be destroyed quickly or control their behavior so that they will not have a chance to divide and spread throughout the body.
When cancer cells grow sometimes they can divide themselves and travel to other areas of the body. Chemotherapy is an important process that weakens and kills the cancer cells.
Most of these cells would tend to grow and divide in a well organized way. Some of the cells can divide rapidly such those that comprises the bone marrow, digestive tract, hair follicles, nails and mouth.
The doctors may use special chemical agents that will stop the growth and spreading of the cancer cells. This is a systematic cancer treatment that will reduce the tendency of affecting the organs of the body as it destroy the cancerous cells before they could even get to move.
How does it work?
The main purpose of chemotherapy is to destroy the cancer cells. This is administered by a health professional through the veins of a patient and is injected to the body’s cavity. Other medications for chemotherapy are taken in a form of pills depending on the physician’s recommendation.
It works by deliberately destroying the cancer cells in the affected area of the body. However, since it could not detect a healthy cell the treatment can cause side effects.
There are different kinds of drugs used for chemotherapy treatment to target different reproduction patterns of the cell causing the cancer. The physician will be the one to decide which drug would be suitable for your condition.
Common Side Effects
The most common side effects of chemotherapy may include nausea, vomiting, fatigue, hair loss and lower count of red and white blood cells. Some of them can be really uncomfortable but are just temporary.
In these modern times where technology is evolving the field of medicine has discovered many ways to make the treatments even more effective. Now, chemotherapy is combined with surgery or radiation when treating cancer patients.
There are different types of chemotherapy that doctors prescribed to patient with cancer. One of the famous types is the pre-operative treatment known as neoadjuvant chemotherapy. This is use to reduce the tumor and boost the effectiveness of the radiation during the medication.
The post operative-treatment, adjuvant is utilized to prevent the cancer from returning and reduce the spreading of the cancerous cell throughout the body. Palliative chemotherapy is an effective cancer treatment given only to patients to decrease tumors and in the hope prolong or extend life expectancy.
Administration of Chemotherapy
The dosage of chemotherapy treatment is essentially determined by the attending physician. There are certain patients who may need higher dosage than the other, so this must be taken cared of carefully before it is administered to the patient.
Patients have also different responses on their medication so proper examination and assessment are required. Many hospitals provide a standard dosage scheme which will serve as a guide for the physician in selecting the right dosage for the patients.
It usually determined and adjusted according to the patient’s height, blood volume, weight and body surface area. Chemotherapy is said to have many benefits for women who are suffering from ovarian cancer based on some research done by experts.
This can be also helpful to other types of cancer and reduces the risk of having the disease again even after the series of Cancer treatment that the patient has undergone. The effectiveness of this method is renowned worldwide.