Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is used to treat various cancers. Chemotherapy drugs or chemicals slows down or stops the growth of cancer cells. Various chemotherapy drugs are available to treat cancer. TC chemotherapy is used to treat node positive breast cancer after initial surgery.

In TC chemotherapy, combination of Taxotere and Cyclophosphamide chemotherapy drugs is used. TC chemotherapy is approved by FDA (Food and Drug Administration). According to studies TC chemotherapy improves disease free survival. TC chemotherapy is helpful for early stage breast cancer.

Taxotere or docetaxel was approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) for use by women with node-positive breast cancer in 2004. Approval was based on various studies for women with this type of cancer along with a long track record of earlier studies for women with advanced cancer. Also Taxotere when added to the FEC chemotherapy regimen (5-fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide) reduces the risk of recurrence of disease and extends survival in women with node-positive breast cancer.

However, combination of Taxotere and cyclophosphamide chemotherapy drugs offer more benefits in term of survival and side effects. Before TC chemotherapy, combination of Adriamycin (doxorubicin) and cyclophosphamide also known as AC chemotherapy is used as standard chemotherapy regimen for women with early-stage breast cancer for many years. But Adriamycin can cause heart problems while Taxotere does not. So TC chemotherapy is an effective treatment plan which avoids side effect would be an important treatment advance.

TC chemotherapy is applied as adjuvant chemotherapy (applied after surgery) for women with early stage breast cancer. According studies, TC chemotherapy is better chemotherapy treatment in terms of disease free survival (recurrence of cancer) and overall survival. TC chemotherapy is applied in cycles. Each treatment plan is followed by rest period or recovery. Rest period allows patient to recover from side effects associated with treatment and to prepare themselves for next round of treatment.

Chemotherapy drugs used in the treatment are toxic in nature. They destroy cancer cell while in the process also damage normal cells. This causes some unpleasant side effects. These side effects include nausea, fatigue, hair loss, memory loss, loss of appetite, vomiting, low blood cell count, bleeding, headache, mouth sores, eye sores and susceptibility to infection.

Each patient reacts differently to chemotherapy treatment. Some have fewer side effects while others have more. Side effects associated with chemotherapy also depend on prognosis and over all health condition of patient. However, these side effects are temporary and disappear once the treatment gets over.