When a group of cells grows abundantly in the body and destroys other tissues and spread to other locations, it is termed as cancer. Cancer affects other major organs in the body like the heart, lungs, stomach, intestine and the digestive organs. In order to destroy and stop the growth of the cancer cells, a person has to undergo some treatments; chemotherapy is one of them. Chemotherapy involves the use of drugs to destroy the cancer cells. ACT chemotherapy regimen involves three drugs to fight cancer. These drugs are Adriamycin(doxorubicin), Cytoxan(cyclophosphamide) and Taxol (paclitaxel).

ACT chemotherapy usually administered as adjuvant therapy in patients who have a high risk of tumor recurrence. There are many types and stages of breast cancer and their treatment options will vary from one patient to another. For example, the treatment for inflammatory breast cancer and node positive breast cancer may not be the same.

Adjuvant therapy is a kind of treatment in which the patients undergo surgery. After the surgery, they are given chemotherapy in order to kill all the cancer cells that might not have been removed during the surgery. This reduces the chances of recurrence in patients. Apart from ACT, your doctor might prescribe some other chemotherapy regimens for breast cancer. The treatment is usually individualized according to the need of the patients.

Side Effects of ACT Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy destroys all the fast growing cancer cells in the body. But the negative aspect of chemotherapy is that it also destroys the healthy cells present around the cancerous cells. These healthy cells include the red blood cells, the white blood cells, platelets and hair follicles. Therefore there are visible side effects that most patients experience during chemotherapy. Although the side effects are temporary, it takes a toll on the patient’s health. The good part about chemotherapy is that the treatment has a rest period between the cycles. This gives some time for the body to recover from the damage caused by chemotherapy on the healthy cells.

Each and every drug used in chemotherapy has its own side effects. For example, adriamycin gives some severe side effects such as hair loss, discolored urine, decrease in the count of red blood cells and white blood cells. Exposure to sun can even lead to sever sunburns in most patients.

Cytoxan induces side effects such as hair loss, irregular menstrual cycle, bladder irritation, decrease count of red blood cells, white blood cells and low platelets count.

Taxol on the other hand induces, mouth sores, muscle ache, hair loss, numbness, allergic reactions, tingling sensation in the toes and fingers or peripheral neuropathy, decrease count of both white blood cells and red blood cells.

In order to minimize the side effects caused by Taxol, Cytoxan and Adriamycin, patients must increase the intake of fluids, wear comfortable and cool clothes and avoid exposure to sun.

Patients must take the chemotherapy doses regularly to make sure that the disease is cured. Most of the side effects arising from chemotherapy diminish once the treatment is over. Patients can also have side effects that are not mentioned above. You must consult your health care provider to know more about the side effects and how to manage them. You will also be guided about the various precautions that you should take during the treatment some of which include:

• Do not undergo any other treatment without the consent of your oncologist.
• If you have to go out, use an effective sun block
• Avoid crowded places. It increases chances of infection, and during the treatment the immunity levels do down.
• Do not take any vaccinations or medications without taking the permission of your doctor.

There are many other drugs used for the treatment of stage 2 breast cancer and adjuvant chemotherapy for other stages breast cancer, but ACT is one of the best treatment options. ACT has shown remarkable results among breast cancer patients, increasing the chances of survival rate.