Long Term Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is treatment for cancer in which drugs or chemicals are used to destroy cancer cell. Chemotherapy is treatment to treat cancer in which drugs or chemical are used to kill cancerous cell.
Chemotherapy is a very broad term. Chemotherapy treatment depends on type of cancer you have, stage of cancer, patient’s prognosis. Also, duration of chemotherapy or length of chemotherapy varies according to treatment plan.
Depending on the duration or length of chemotherapy, there is long term chemotherapy and short term chemotherapy. Basically, chemotherapy is given in cycles. Each treatment cycle comprises of treatment period and recovery. During treatment period, chemotherapy drugs are administered. Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells and also damage normal body cell. Recovery period allows body’s normal cells to recover from damage. Generally long term chemotherapy lasts for six months to one year.
In long term chemotherapy, usually single drug chemotherapy is applied. Though combination chemotherapy is more effective, sometimes patients can not tolerate two or three drugs once due to poor prognosis. In such situation, single drug chemotherapy becomes essential which increases duration of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy drugs are administered by using different means including intravenous, intramuscular, orally, topically.
In long term chemotherapy, chemotherapy drugs damage normal body cells along with cancer cells. This causes some unpleasant side effects. These side effects include temporary side effects as well as long term side effects. Temporary side effects might include hair loss, fatigue, mouth sores, swallowing, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, bleeding, susceptibility to infection, infertility and loss of appetite. However these side effects will disappear once the treatment is over.
As patients with cancer can have extended survival using chemotherapy, there are some long-lasting side effects or also called late effects that become apparent long after treatment ends occurred. However, these long-term side effects are rare. These long term side effects include organ damage (heart damage, lung damage and kidney damage), nerve damage and blood in urine. Chemotherapy can also develop other type of cancer including Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia and some other tumors.
Consult your doctor and medical team before starting your chemotherapy treatment about long-term effects of the treatment. Your doctor can tell you what signs and symptoms that you need to consider after treatment. This will help you to deal with long-term side effects and also help you stay healthy after treatment. Visit your doctor for follow up treatment after completing your treatment.