Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is treatment to cure various cancers. In chemotherapy treatment, drugs or chemical are used which stops or slow down growth of cancerous cell.

There are various chemotherapy drugs are available to treat different cancer. Chemotherapy drugs are administered by different methods including injections, orally, intravenously and tropically. Chemotherapy drugs and method of administration for you is determined by your doctor and medical team.

There are different chemotherapy are available which application depends on various factors including type of cancer, stage of cancer and patient’s physical condition. Each chemotherapy treatment destroys cancer in different way. Some chemotherapy treatments cure cancer while other just control or sloes down the growth of cancerous cell. Some chemotherapy treatment deals with symptoms of cancer. So, before applying chemotherapy treatment, one should clearly define goals of treatment.

Chemotherapy treatment use specific drugs which eradicates cancerous cell. Chemotherapy drug circulates through out the body and kills rapidly growing cancerous cell. Chemotherapy is effective than surgery or radio therapy which remove or destroy cancer cells from specific area. However, chemotherapy drugs can also harm non- cancerous, healthy cell while destroying cancerous cells which cause side effects.

Chemotherapy drugs when used in combination or mixture can be more effective. which is also known as combination chemotherapy. There are different chemotherapy drugs which either given on its own or in combination with other drugs. Various chemotherapy drugs can be used in different ways and in different combination depending on individual to treat cancer.

Chemotherapy when applied alone has limited effect in certain types of cancer including lung cancer. In such cases, chemotherapy when applied with radio therapy or surgery is more effective than when applied alone. In adjuvant chemotherapy, chemotherapy is applied after surgery or radiation therapy to kill cancerous cell. In neoadjuvant chemotherapy, chemotherapy is applied prior to surgery to reduce the size of tumor. It makes surgery easy.

Chemotherapy treatment is usually applied cycles. Each treatment cycle comprise of treatment period and recovery or rest period. Recovery or rest period is helpful for patient to recover from side effects of treatment. Frequencies of treatment, no. of cycles are determined by doctor. Doctor takes help of research and clinical trails to determine length of chemotherapy. Length of treatment as well as drugs used and dose are important for chemotherapy success.

Though chemotherapy treatment is effective, it is associated with some side effects. Chemotherapy drugs are toxic in nature. These drugs damage healthy cells along with cancerous cell. These drugs cause some side effects which includes nausea, vomiting, fatigue, sickness, anemia, mouth sores, extreme tiredness, memory loss, hair loss and others. These side effects disappear once chemotherapy treatment is over.