Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy involves being given a combination of anti-cancer medicines, often up to three at a time. The prime target for such medicines is cancer cells that are actively growing and dividing. Unfortunately, anticancer medicines are not able to recognise cancer cells specifically and they also kill normally dividing cells such as the blood and hair cells. The art of the science behind successful cancer chemotherapy is combining medicines which are chosen to minimise the damage to blood cells while maximising damage to cancer cells. Chemotherapy may be preferable for more advanced cancer that is not hormone responsive and for aggressive disease, particularly if the cancer has spread to other sites, such as the liver. It is sometimes administered prior to surgery in order to shrink a tumour. As outlined above, this sometimes means that the surgeon is able to perform less extensive surgery in patients whose cancers respond. Cancer chemotherapy is usually given through an intravenous drip in the hand or arm on an outpatient basis. Treatments vary but each session usually lasts between one and two hours and is repeated every three weeks. Patients may be frightened because they have heard about very unpleasant side effects such as nausea, vomiting and hair loss. In fact, by no means everyone will experience all or even any of these problems. Some of the anti-cancer drugs that are in common use cause little or no hair thinning and anti-sickness medicine given with the chemotherapy works well. A common complaint in people receiving chemotherapy is of weight gain. This is due to the anti-sickness pills which are taken after the chemotherapy. Once the chemotherapy is finished, providing the patient remains active, they should return to their initial weight. One of the less well-known side effects of chemotherapy is to cause premature menopause. This means that periods are likely to stop at a much earlier age if you have had this type of treatment. Bringing forward the menopause is particularly likely to occur in women in their late 30s and 40s, but even younger women can find that their periods temporarily stop during chemotherapy.