chemotherapy

Examples of chemotherapy in the following topics:

• Chemotherapy and Hair Loss

  • Therefore, alopecia, or, hair loss, is a common, unwanted effect of chemotherapy.
  • Hair typically begins to fall out two to three weeks after the start of chemotherapy.
  • The loss of hair during chemotherapy is almost always temporary, and hair will usually start to grow back two to three months after the completion of chemotherapy.
  • Chemotherapy can cause a person's hair to change color, or grow back straighter or curlier.
  • Cooling the scalp using a hypothermia cap can help prevent or reduce hair loss from chemotherapy.

• Lymphomas

  • Lymphoma is cancer of the lymphocytes and and is treated with chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
  • Treatment might involve chemotherapy and, in some cases, radiotherapy, and/or bone marrow transplantation.
  • If a low-grade lymphoma is becoming symptomatic, radiotherapy or chemotherapy are the treatments of choice.
  • This treatment typically consists of aggressive chemotherapy.
  • Advanced Hodgkin disease requires systemic chemotherapy, sometimes combined with radiotherapy.

• Medical Uses of Hematopoietic Growth Factors

  • Hemopoetic growth factors show promise in improving the lives of those suffering from kidney disease or recovering from chemotherapy.
  • Chemotherapy can cause myelosuppression and unacceptably low levels of white blood cells, making patients prone to infections and sepsis.
  • Thrombopoietin shows great promise for preventing platelet depletion during chemotherapy.
  • Theoretical uses include the procurement of platelets for donation and recovery of platelet counts after myelosuppressive chemotherapy.
  • GCSF is a glycoprotein growth factor that stimulates the bone marrow and is used therapeutically in certain cancer patients to accelerate recovery from neutropenia after chemotherapy.

• Medical Imaging and Diagnostics

  • Radiation therapy is synergistic with chemotherapy and has been used before, during, and after chemotherapy in susceptible cancers.
  • The nature, severity, and longevity of side effects depend on the organs that receive the radiation, the treatment itself (type of radiation, dose, fractionation, concurrent chemotherapy), and the individual patient.

• Therapeutic Uses of Radiation

  • Radiation therapy is synergistic with chemotherapy and has been used before, during, and after chemotherapy in susceptible cancers.
  • The nature, severity, and longevity of side effects depend on the organs that receive the radiation, the treatment itself (type of radiation, dose, fractionation, concurrent chemotherapy), and the individual patient.

• Antibiotic Discovery

  • Alexander Fleming observed antibiosis against bacteria by a fungus of the genus Penicillium and postulated the effect was mediated by an antibacterial compound named penicillin whose antibacterial properties have been widely exploited for chemotherapy.
  • Synthetic antibiotic chemotherapy as a science and development of antibacterials began in Germany with Paul Ehrlich in the late 1880s.
  • Fleming postulated the effect was mediated by an antibacterial compound named penicillin, and that its antibacterial properties could be exploited for chemotherapy.

• Colorectal Cancer

  • Cancers that are confined within the wall of the colon are often curable with surgery, while cancer that has spread widely around the body is usually not curable and management then focuses on extending the person's life via chemotherapy and improving quality of life.
  • Sometimes chemotherapy is used before surgery to shrink the cancer before attempting to remove it.
  • Chemotherapy may be used in addition to surgery in certain cases.
  • If the lymph nodes do not contain cancer the benefits of chemotherapy are controversial.

• Overview of Cancer

  • Chemotherapy: In addition to surgery, this has proven useful in a number of different cancer types.
  • Chemotherapy refers to the administration of a toxin that targets rapidly dividing cells and promotes their cell death.
  • It is nonspecific to tumors and it's effect on other rapidly dividing cells, such as those of the hair follicle, give rise to the side-effects associated with chemotherapy.
  • Radiation is typically used in addition to surgery and/or chemotherapy.

• Spinal Cord Compression

  • Some tumors are highly sensitive to chemotherapy (e.g. lymphomas, small-cell lung cancer) and may be treated with chemotherapy alone.

• Breast Cancer

  • This may include surgery, drugs (hormonal therapy and chemotherapy), radiation and/or immunotherapy.
  • To promote the likelihood of long-term disease-free survival, several chemotherapy regimens are commonly given in addition to surgery.
  • Most forms of chemotherapy kill cells that are dividing rapidly anywhere in the body and so cause temporary hair loss and digestive disturbances.