Cancer Chemotherapy

Cancer Chemotherapy is an effective approach to control the development of cancer. Yet, not many medical institutions are applying these synergistic methods into clinical practice because of the side effects of cytotoxic chemotherapy drugs.

Overview of Cancer Chemotherapy

As we all know, the cells of our body will undergo the cell death through a pathway called apoptosis. The cancer cells start to develop if the cells cannot undergo the apoptosis. The cancer cells will keep dividing and clumping to form the tumour without any regulation system. By using the cancer chemotherapy, the anticancer drugs play the role to destroy the cancer cells to stop them from developing. The anticancer drugs stop the growth cycle of the cancer cells.

There are many cytotoxic drugs while utilizing cancer chemotherapy to treat cancer. The cytotoxic drugs used depending on the type of cancer being treated. Sometimes, the combination of cancer chemotherapy with surgery and radiation therapy may be used to deal with the cancer effectively.

Aims of Cancer Chemotherapy

The main aims of cancer chemotherapy are:

i. Minimize or shrink primary tumours

ii. Slow the tumour growth

iii. Kill cancer cells that metastasized to other parts of body

Cancer Chemotherapy Kills Normal Cells

We should remember that cancer chemotherapy kills both cancer and healthy cells in our body. This is the most crucial side effect of using cancer chemotherapy to treat cancer. Therefore, the researchers work hard to find a way to minimize the damage to normal cells at the same time to enhance the cytotoxic effect to cancer cells.

Integrated Approaches to Minimize Cancer Chemotherapy Side Effects

Nutrients and hormone therapies can be used to minimize the toxicity of cancer chemotherapy. As I mentioned above, the use of cancer chemotherapy will cause a lot of side effects such as severe heart muscle damage, gastrointestinal damage, anaemia, nausea, lethal suppression of immune function and so on. By strengthen the immune system of our body, the severity of complications associated with cancer chemotherapy can be minimized. These approaches should be undertaken several days before carrying out cancer chemotherapy and should be continued after the therapy has completed.

The Foundation’s chemotherapy protocol gives concise information about reducing side effects of cancer chemotherapy. The cancer chemotherapy patients are recommended to refer to the Cancer Treatment protocol after reading the Foundation’s chemotherapy protocol to gain more information about increasing the efficacy of chemotherapy.

In conclusion, cancer chemotherapy is still a great way to treat the cancer. Further studies need to be carried out to minimize the side effects of this therapy. I will explain more about the chemotherapy in my forthcoming articles. Frankly, it has been a long time for me to live without updating this Cytogenetics and Cancer Research blog. I have to apologize as I just came back from a retreat camp yesterday. Another good news for me is I have finished my undergraduate study for Genetics and Molecular Biology. Thanks for supporting me.