Oral Chemotherapy

Posted on March 27, 2008 by admin

Is Oral Chemotherapy An Option?

Oral chemotherapy is a method of treating chemotherapy in which the chemotherapy drugs are taken by mouth, usually in the form of a tablet or pill.  This is perhaps the easiest way to receive chemotherapy treatments because the medication does not have to enter the body through a vein, injections, drips or even more invasive procedures.  Not all patients are able to have this type of treatment, though.  It is up to your doctor to determine if this is the best way for you to get chemotherapy help or if you do need other methods.

What You Need To Know?

If you will be taking oral chemotherapy treatments, that means that you are taking a very specific type of medication that is very powerful and very much a part of your healing process.  You may need to monitor yourself and insure that you are taking the medication as your doctor directs.  It is essential to follow the appropriate scheduling, dosage amounts any other important considerations as per the directions your doctor or your nurse will give to you at the time of prescribing these medications to you.

Before you leave the doctor’s office, you need to have a few things understood:

  • You should know when to take the chemotherapy pills or capsules.  This means time, day, as well as how often.
  • Doctors will often point out the necessary means of taking them.  For example, some of these medications must be taken on an empty stomach, but others will require that you take them with food.  This will interact with the way that they are used if you do not take them correctly.
  • Learn how to keep them safe in your home.  Some of these oral medications need to be kept in your refrigerator at a certain temperature.  Because they are so powerful, you should be sure that they are stored someplace locked and where no child can get to them.
  • Handling these medications with care.  Those helping cancer patients take chemotherapy drugs like this should wear gloves because of just how powerful these medications are.

Follow any other direction given to you by your nurse prior to leaving the hospital.

Is Your Drug Available Like This?

Unfortunately, not many of the chemotherapy medications can be taken as an oral product.  Some are unable to be taken like this because they can not be absorbed into your body through the digestive symptom.  In other cases, the medications may become destroyed by the acid that is in your body’s stomach.  Still others need to be given in larger doses to be effective and those doses may not be possible to take in a pill format.

As with all chemotherapy treatments, tablets can leave you with side effects of cancer medications. This may include chemotherapy hair loss, nausea, fatigue and pain.  Talk to your doctor about the availability of medications to help counteract these side effects.  Doctors often have the necessary medications available to help stop these side effects or to limit how severe they can be.  Additionally, follow a good chemotherapy diet so that your body is getting the necessary nutrients it needs to fight off the cancer cells and to get back to a health level as soon as possible.

Since most doctors do want to make taking cancer chemotherapy treatments as easy as possible, they will prescribe for you those medications that can be taken orally, if available.  If you are unsure about this, ask your doctor for their recommendations.  Additionally, you should learn as much as you can about how to prepare yourself for chemotherapy as well as the many side effects that you may face.

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Types Of Chemotherapy

Posted on March 27, 2008 by admin

Chemotherapy Types

There are many types of chemotherapy that you could be told will be used to help treat your cancer.  Ultimately, your doctor will determine the best treatment for you based on a couple of specific considerations.  First, they need to understand your cancer well enough, which means knowing where it is located, what type it is, what stage it is in as well as where the location of tumors are.  From here, they will find the most appropriate treatment plan for you, which most often include some form of chemotherapy.  With the help of other treatment means, including radiation therapy and surgery, doctors can isolate, kill as well as remove cancer cells from your body so that you go into remission.

Types Of Cancer

There are many types of cancer and doctors must work to determine which the best option for your individual case is.  Breast cancer chemotherapy is much different than lung cancer chemotherapy, for example.  They will require different techniques, different aggression plans as well as different chemotherapy drugs to treat them.  Many times, doctors must use a combination of medications within the chemotherapy to accomplish the necessary goals of curing your cancer.

Types Of Chemotherapy Drugs

There are also several types of chemotherapy drugs, based on the way that they are used and the reactions they have.  The drugs are divided into groups based on the way that they work within the cancer cell (the way that chemical substances in the cancer react to them.)  Additionally, they are divided by what cellular processes the drug interacts with and the drug affects.  By knowing the different ways that these drugs work, and knowing what you need them to accomplish, doctors can get the best results from the chemotherapy treatment that they administer.

Here are few of the different types of chemotherapy drugs you may hear about.

  • Alkylating Agents:  This type of drug works to damage the DNA within the cancer cell.  When it does this, it does not allow the cancer cell to reproduce.  They work in all phases of cancer.  They work well against chronic leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, non Hodgkin lymphoma, lung cancer, breast cancer and several other types.
  • Nitrosoureas:  This type of chemotherapy drug works similar to that of Alkylating drugs. These will interfere with the enzymes that work in the cell to copy and repair DNA.  They are able to work in various stages of cancer.  They work well in brain tumors because of their rare ability to travel from the blood into the brain.  They also treat other forms of cancer.
  • Antimetabolites:  DNA and RNA growth in cells is damaged or interfered with when these types of drugs are used.  They work best in the S phase of the cancer and can be used to treat breast cancer, ovary cancer, gastrointestinal tract cancers, as well as leukemia.
  • Anthracyclines and Related Medications:  These are antibiotics that fight against the tumor using enzymes that are necessary for DNA replication.  They work in all stages of cancer. They can be used in a wide range of cancers.  These drugs, though, are limited because over time they can damage heart muscles.

Many of these drugs can be taken as oral chemotherapy, injected into veins, or taking through other methods as necessary.

Doctors work to determine the best type of chemotherapy for you.  With many types of chemotherapy drugs to choose from, doctors do have many options.  More so, new cancer curing drugs are always coming on the market.  As they do, you may have more chances to fight the cancers you are facing.  If you have questions about how the drugs you are taking work, your doctor can help.

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Chemotherapy Nausea

Posted on March 27, 2008 by admin

Chemotherapy Side Effects such as Nausea

Chemotherapy nausea is one of many different side effects that cancer patients are likely to face.  The side effects of chemotherapy often can cause the individual a lot of discomfort, a feeling of being sick all the time and being very tired continuously.  The drugs that you must take to get rid of the cancer you are facing cause these things.  Those drugs are often very powerful, as they need to kill off the cancer cells within the body quickly.  For many people, getting over the nausea is also important and doctors can help with medications that help.

What Is This?

Chemotherapy nausea is a term used to describe the feeling of being sick.  You may feel like you are going to vomit or that you are going to get sick, but in fact you do not throw up.  Those that feel like this often have symptoms such as a faster heart rate, more saliva than what is usually, feel dizzy or unable to focus, and they are cold and clammy.  Many times, you do not want to eat and the thought of doing so may be awful.  This feeling is caused by the body’s reaction to medications.  The stomach muscles are usually contracting which causes the food or other substances in your stomach to feel as if they are going to come back up.  Some people will retch, which means that they will try to throw up but nothing comes up.

Why Does This Happen?

There are several reasons why you may get sick.  The cause of sickness during chemotherapy treatment is different for each person based on your body’s reaction to medications.  The body is working like this to get rid of the substances that you have consumed that it does not want there. Your brain controls this function and tells your stomach to contract to remove whatever has been consumed.  You actually have an area of your brain known as the vomiting center where this is controlled.

That area of your body is triggered by the response from other areas of the body.  For example, your senses of taste and smell, your emotions including anxiousness, and your stomach all react to the chemotherapy drugs and in turn send a signal to your brain that this is not making you feel good.  Additionally, those chemotherapy medications release a number of different chemicals into your body which work as neurotransmitters. They cause another signal to be alerted to the brain that something is wrong.

Getting Through Chemotherapy Sickness

The good news is that the chemotherapy sickness that you are feeling is not going to last.  For most people, it lasts through chemotherapy cycles and then will fade as the medications are slowly removed from your system.  Another benefit to consider is talking to your doctor about anti nausea medications which are widely available and usually can be taken to help reduce this uncontrollable pain and discomfort that you feel.  They work for most people, at least to some degree of doing so.

Nausea during chemotherapy is a normal reaction to the drugs.  Nevertheless, for most people, the worry and the feeling together can be enough to really cause you to be exhausted.  You will want to get more rest and try to drink enough fluids.  Doctors can help with other chemotherapy side effects as well.  For example chemotherapy hair loss, pain in the mouth or other areas as well as appetite control are all things that your doctor can offer help with.  These treatments need to be provided so that you can continue to improve your overall health and well being.

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