Cancer Chemotherapy Treatment Help

ChemotherapyHelp.org is dedicated to providing information about cancer chemotherapy treatment, chemotherapy drugs, chemotherapy side effects, chemotherapy regimens, as well as any other information that may help cancer patients, their caretakers, family members, and friends deal with the difficult process of chemotherapy treatment.

What Is Chemotherapy Treatment?

Chemotherapy treatment is the use of chemotherapy drugs to kill or inhibit the growth of cancer cells. To accomplish this, drugs are given to the patient that attack or inhibit the growth of rapidly dividing cells. Because cancer is a disease involving the abnormal and uncontrolled growth of cells that takeover surrounding tissue, the chemotherapy drugs can be used to successfully cure or slow the growth of cancer by attacking and killing these rapidly multiplying cancer cells.

While chemotherapy, along with surgery and radiation therapy, is one of the most effective weapons we have in the fight against cancer, one of the main negatives of chemotherapy treatment is that chemotherapy drugs will also kill healthy body cells, leading to side effects. Since chemotherapy drugs target rapidly dividing cells, rapidly dividing cells that are perfectly healthy such as those in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract, and hair follicles are also hurt in the process.

Chemotherapy Side Effects

Because of the way chemotherapy drugs target cancerous cells, some of the most common chemotherapy side effects are experienced in the areas with rapidly dividing cells. Common side effects of chemotherapy include:

• Anemia – low red blood cell count that leads to fatigue and breathlessness
• Neutropenia – Low white blood cell count that weakens the immune system and increases risk of infection
• Hair loss
• Diarrhea, constipation
• Nausea and/or vomiting
• Muscle and nerve problems
• Fertility and sexuality problems
• Bleeding and/or bruising due to low platelet count

Facing the side effects of chemotherapy is one of the scarier things for cancer patients and their loved ones. If you or a loved one is facing chemotherapy treatment, you may be wondering about the side effects. Are the side effects of chemotherapy really as bad as people say?

The truth is, there is no way to tell exactly how a person will react to chemotherapy treatment. Some people experience no side effects at all, while others experience a high level of discomfort. For the best prediction of the side effects of chemo for your case, it is best to consult your oncologist. What we can tell you is that side effect management has come a long way in the last 20 years, and patients nowadays have many more medications available to them to combat chemo side effects.

Types Of Chemotherapy

While most types of chemotherapy follow the basic principle of attacking or inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, the details of how different chemotherapy drugs interact with different types of cancers at different stages of their development is extremely complex. Drugs may be used alone, or in combination with other drugs, or even other treatments such as radiation therapy or surgery. Drugs may be used to cure, to slow the spread of a cancer while other treatments are used, or just simply to alleviate the patient’s symptoms.

Some more common types of chemotherapy include: adjuvant chemotherapy, folfox chemotherapy, CHOP chemotherapy, ABCD chemotherapy, taxotere chemotherapy, R-ICE chemotherapy, CMF chemotherapy, palliative chemotherapy, induction chemotherapy, and intrathecal chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy can be used to treat nearly any type of cancer. Chemotherapy is commonly used for many common cancers such as lung cancer treatment, ovarian cancer treatment, lymphoma treatment, colon cancer treatment, prostate cancer treatment, breast cancer treatment, and leukemia treatment. This is by no means an inclusive list.

Chemotherapy Help.org Disclaimer

One last, but important note: while we attempt to offer accurate and through information here at chemotherapyhelp.org, chemotherapy and cancer treatment is an extremely complex area of medicine. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of anything on this website, and this website does not provide medical advice or opinions. Absolutely nothing you read here can replace the advice of your physician or oncologist.

Please use this website as a general educational resource only and do not interpret any of the information here as medical advice, or use it as substitute for a medical consultation. Please do not base any medical decisions on anything you read here and always consult your doctor.