What Does Chemotherapy Do?
By: MarkLuisTotal Views: 189, Word Count: 513,
In human body, cell division is constantly taking place to produce new cells. These newly produced cells replace damaged or dead cells. This process of cell division is controlled precisely so that only required no of cells are produced.
Cancer is developed when a cell or group of cells do not follow normal controlled cell production process and start to divide and multiply themselves randomly. This situation leads to an excessive number of cells being produced. Chemotherapy is treatment to treat cancer using drugs or chemicals which eradicates cancer cells. In chemotherapy, drugs are administered which stops or slows down the growth of cancerous cells.
Chemotherapy drugs are effective in many ways depending on the type and stage of the cancer. Chemotherapy treatment can cure cancer, control cancer and ease cancer symptoms. When chemotherapy eradicates cancerous cell in your body so that doctor can no longer detect them in your body. In some cases, chemotherapy drugs slow down growth of cancerous cell or damage the cell that spread to other part of body. In other chemotherapy treatment, size of the tumor is shrinked.
Chemotherapy is applied all alone or it can be applied along with other treatments such as surgery, radiation therapy or biological therapy. In neo-adjuvant chemotherapy treatment, size of the tumor is made smaller before surgery or radiation therapy. While in adjuvant chemotherapy, cancerous cells that are left after radiation therapy or surgery are destroyed using chemotherapy. Some times chemotherapy helps to radiation therapy and biological therapy to work better.
There are different types of chemotherapy drugs available to treat particular cancer. However, choice of drugs depends on different factors which include type of cancer, having undergone any prior chemotherapy treatment and health problems such as heart disease or diabetes.
Chemotherapy treatment can be given at different places. Usually, chemotherapy treatment is given at OPD (out patient department) of hospital. You can also receive chemotherapy treatment at doctor’s office, clinic or at home. No matter where you take chemotherapy treatment, doctor and medical always monitor for side effects to make any changes in treatment.
There are different methods by which chemotherapy treatment is applied. These methods include intravenous, injections, intra-peritoneal, intra- arterial. Some chemotherapy drugs are in the form of pill or tablets and liquid which are taken orally. Some drugs are applied directly on skin.
Chemotherapy treatment is applied in cycles. Each cycle has recovery period. Recovery period helps patient to recover from the side effects of chemotherapy. Doctor and medical team decide no of cycle, duration, drug, dose of chemotherapy treatment. It usually depends on type and stage of the cancer.
Since chemotherapy drugs are toxic in nature, they affect healthy cells along with cancerous cells. Due to this, side effects are caused during chemotherapy treatment. These side effects include nausea, vomiting, hair loss, memory loss, fatigue, sickness and many others. Often these side effects get disappear once chemotherapy is over.
Consult your doctor or medical team about chemotherapy, its benefits, side effects in details before applying it.
About the Author
Mark Luis is a medical writer specializing in cancer and chemotherapy. He runs few cancer and chemotherapy relates sites like and cancer symptoms.
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