Cancer chemotherapy side effects

U. tomentosa Central and South America To treat abscesses, arthritis, asthma, cancer, chemotherapy side effects, contraception, disease prevention, fevers, gastric uicers, hemorrhages, inflammations, menstrual irregularity, recovery from chi id birth, rheumatism, skin impurities, urinary tract inflammation, weakness, and wounds [19]. 

Cannabis and THC synthetics have Iwen used to counter the nausea and vomiting frequently associated with chemotherapies (and some radiation treatments) for cancer. These side effects, which can last for several hours or even several days, often are not ameliorated by traditional antiemetic medications (although significant advances arc being made in the development of more powerful antisickness drugs). Researchers in... 

Chemotherapy is a common method of treatment for many types of cancer. The side effects of chemotherapy come about in part because cancer cells are not the only dividing cells in the body. Chemotherapeutic agents cause increased production of free radicals that can be harmful for normal cells, and these free radicals can be bound by antioxidant vitamins and supplements, including lycopene. A large number of studies have reported the beneficial effects of a variety of antioxidants in antineoplastic agents-induced nephrotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, ototoxicity, and peripheral neuropathy [218, 219]. Chemoprotective activities of lycopene [219, 220], and other dietary components that scavenge free radicals induced by exposure to antineoplastic agents [218, 220] have been well documented (Table 129.2). 

Modem cancer therapy has been primarily dependent upon surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy (72) (see Chemotherapeutics,anticancer Hormones Radiopharmaceuticals). Chemotherapeutic agents maybe able to retard the rate of growth, but are unable to eradicate the entire population of neoplastic cells without significant destmction of normal host tissue. This serious side effect limits general use. More recentiy, the immunotherapeutic approach to cancer has involved modification and exploitation of the cellular and molecular mechanisms in host defense, regulation of tissue proliferation, tissue differentiation, and tissue survival. The results have been more than encouraging. 

When hematopoietic growth factors are used clinically, they can be associated with adverse effects. Very often patients who require hematopoietic growth factors are quite ill with their disease (i.e., cancer or kidney failure) or from their treatment (i.e., chemotherapy) and it is difficult to determine if a recombinant growth factor is responsible for a given side effect. Both rHuG-CSF and rHuGM-CSF are associated with mild-to-moderate... 

Myelosuppression is one of the most common dose-limiting side effects of cancer drugs that cause myelosuppression. Myelosuppression may occur several days to several weeks after treatment and varies with the chemotherapy drugs used. WBCs, in particular, neutrophils, are the first cell line that is decreased because of their rapid proliferation and short life span of 6 to 12 hours. Platelets, with a life span of 9 to 11 days... 

About a 100 years ago, Coley observed tumor regression after application of a mixture of bacterial toxins. This experiment made the foundation of immune therapy for cancer, which only recently became a promising treatment and an efficient alternative to chemotherapy. In contrast to chemotherapy (1), this new treatment does not kill tumor cells directly rather it enhances the sensitivity of the patient s own immune system against tumor cells with all the potential positive aspects like high selectivity of treatment and much less side effects (2). 

Tamoxifen is on oestrogen-receptor antagonist. It is used in post-menopousol women with oestrogen-receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer at a dose of 20 mg doily. It con also be used in combination with chemotherapy. Severe side-effects ore infrequent however, it is associated with a small risk of endometrial cancer. Patients should be informed and reassured that the benefits of the treatment at this dose outweigh the risk. 

After over half a century of chemotherapy research, cancer remains one of the most difficult life-threatening diseases to treat, a consequence of factors that include limitations of animal models, tiunour diversity, drug resistance and the side effects of therapy. Although there have been successes, most notably in treatment of testicular cancer [1], chemotherapy can currently still offer only a modest increase in survival time in the majority of advanced disease cases [2], The incidence of cancer is increasing due to ageing populations in most countries, and it has been estimated that in 20 years time there will be 20 million new cancer patients worldwide each year [3]. An optimistic view, however, is that in the coming decades advances in prevention, detection and treatment will see cancer becoming considered not as a fatal but as a chronic disease [3]. 

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