Issue Date: October 22, 2006
Keeping up with chemotherapy
It isn't easy to undergo, but this cancer treatment is increasingly effective.
Chemotherapy's advantage over surgery or radiation is that it travels through the entire body.
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October is breast cancer awareness month, and an important part of the treatment program for many who suffer from the disease is chemotherapy. Generally speaking, chemotherapy simply means medications used to treat illness. But the term typically is applied to cancer treatment.
Chemotherapy has changed substantially over the last several decades. We know which tumors respond best to this therapy. In fact, chemotherapy is sometimes the primary treatment for cancer. For some forms (like breast cancer), chemotherapy may be used in addition to an initial surgery. Many people ask, "If I had surgery, then why do I need chemotherapy?" Well, we know that tumors spread when some cancer cells leave the initial site and travel through the body to remote areas. Surgery cannot remove these cells. But chemotherapy can. It has an advantage over surgery or radiation; it travels through the entire body, so it goes to the rogue cancer cells. This is the reason why, for certain cancers, the doctor will recommend chemotherapy along with the primary surgery or radiation treatment.
Chemotherapy isn't easy to undergo. It requires ongoing treatments and often is given intravenously. These medications are strong and usually are not given through the smaller, superficial veins of the body because they can irritate and damage them. Instead, these drugs frequently are given through devices implanted in the body that deliver the chemotherapy to the larger, deeper veins, where they aren't as irritating. These are called vascular access devices (VADs) and can be kept in place throughout a person's course of treatment. In addition to the side effects of hair loss, mouth sores and bone marrow problems, chemotherapy can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue and change in tastes. It also can damage other organs, such as the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. This is why people who are getting chemotherapy treatment are monitored so closely.
I know this all sounds really terrible, but understand that chemotherapy is an extremely important part of treatment for many people with tumors. Its use has enabled more cancer patients to survive.
Certainly, I hope that none of you would ever need chemotherapy, but odds are that some of you will. Understanding the basics of how it works and why it's important can make the decision to undergo treatment easier.
Contributing editor Tedd Mitchell, M.D., is president and medical director of the renowned Cooper Clinic in Dallas. He writes HealthSmart every week.
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