Breast Cancer Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer
Chemotherapy is one of the most common methods of treating breast cancer. The procedure involves killing of cells by exposing them to certain chemicals. Needless to say, these chemicals damage both the good as well as the bad cells of the body. However, the good cells are strong and therefore have the ability to fight back and recover, the cancer cells, however, over time die out. Since this therapy targets those cells that divide rapidly, along with cancer cells, bone marrow cells, hair follicle cells and cells in the digestive track are also damaged. This is the reasons why most patients undergoing this therapy tend to loose hair and suffer from weak digestive systems too. This therapy works for almost all stages of cancer, while in the initial stages of cancer; it helps destroy the cancer cells, in the later stages of cancer its aim is reduced to simply prolonging the life of the patient as much as possible. Since the drugs used in this therapy are quite strong, most people who have to undergo the treatment complain of extreme weakness. There are times when this therapy is given in combination with surgery or even radiology. Deciding the dosage of this therapy can be a tedious task. Given in low quantities, it will fail to destroy the cancer cells, however if too much is rendered it can harm the patient severely. More often than not a patient’s body surface area is the influencing factor in deciding the dosage of the treatment.
Cancer chemotherapy dosage requires a physician to undertake a personal check of the patient. The patient’s height and weight is then assessed and the blood volume of the patient is thus calculated. The dosage of the therapy is supervised accordingly. Indeed a smaller child will be given a much lower dosage than a grown adult.
While there are side effects chemotherapy, this is not to say that the treatment does permanent damage. As the therapy stops most of the side effects slowly die down. Problems like hair fall come to an end automatically and slowly and steadily the hair grows back. Recovering from the therapy does take some time though.
Chemotherapy breast cancer treatments must be undertaken only under the guidance of an expert doctor. More often than not, the medications in this case are administered via the veins, but there are times when the patient maybe given the medication orally too. Targeting the affected area rather than the entire body is extremely important.
Chemotherapy indeed has several side effects but the treatment plan is crucial to the recovery of a breast cancer patient. Asking your doctor about the side effects of the treatment will help to be prepared for them and combat them better. Keep in mind that the side effects are short lived while the benefits have a longer life.