Cancer: Some Facts About Chemo

The word "chemo" is thrown around these days so often that it might surprise you to note that many people have no idea what chemo, short for chemotherapy, actually entails. But then again, you might be one of the many saying to yourself, "all I know is that chemo is used to treat cancer". So before we go any further lets take a look at what chemo is, and the basics of how it works.

There are so many kinds of cancer that the medical community has trouble keeping track of them, and with new types being discovered as we speak, any lay person doesn't have a chance of understanding all the varieties of cancer. So in order to make it easier, we can simply look at what makes all cancers alike.

All cancers share one important characteristic: they are simply renegade cells in the body which appropriate nutrients from your body in order to grow and grow uncontrollably. The problem with this is that they invade areas where healthy, normal cells should be growing. The rapidly growing cancer cells take over the healthy cells and disrupt the normal function of your body, wherever they chance to grow.

Cells don't reproduce the way animals or even plants do. Cells reproduce by dividing themselves in half and regrowing the missing parts in each half, effectively cloning themselves. What makes cancer cells different than normal cells is that they often divide and reproduce much more rapidly. That is where chemotherapy comes in.

One way to think of chemotherapy drugs is as a targeted missle with an outdated guidance system. The best thing about chemo is also the worst thing about it: it works by attacking any cells in the body that are in the processes of dividing in order to reproduce themselves. While cancer cells are indeed targeted by this function, other cells in your body are reproducing all the time, especially your hair and skin (which is why chemo patients lose their hair and sometimes have dryer skin). But the cells in your vital organs and in your blood are also constantly dividing. That means that while chemotherapy drugs indeed kill cancer cells, they also cause collateral damage to the growing cells in your body. All the nasty side effects you hear about stem from the fact that, while chemo is effective at killing cancer cells, it is just as effective at killing other cells as well.

Chemotherapy works, but it works at the cost of making your body ill. Because chemotherapy drugs cause an almost immediate plunge in the body's white blood cell count, the cells your body's immune system uses to fight off disease, chemo treatments are usually given once every 2-3 weeks, in order to allow the body's white count to return to normal before being bombarded again. The negative effects of the chemo drugs usually manifest themselves for about 3-5 days immediately after the treatment is recieved. For some, it is as mild as a couple days of nausea and fatigue, for others, it can feel like being hit by a speeding truck once every hour. Because of the range of side effects, doctors prescribe palliative treatment as needed, usually anti-nausea drugs and painkillers.

Chemotherapy, although there are numerous approaches, usually consists of a combination of about ten different drugs, some of which are more commonly used than others. Out of these ten(and their derivatives, of which there are many) there are three that are typically chosen, depending on the type of cancer and the overall health of the patient. Lets go through those common three, the way they are usually administered, and reasons why an Oncologist might or might not elect to use them.

Adriamycin is used to treat a wide range of cancers, from lung cancer to breast cancer. It is the drug which causes the most damage to hair and skin cells, and therefore is in most cases responsible for the hair loss that many chemo patients experience. It is often given in combination with another drug like cyclophosphamide, and is given in four treatments, each 2-3 weeks apart. While Adriamycin is incredibly effective at killing cancer cells, it does have a particular danger which causes Oncologists to hesitate in its administration: it can cause accute cardiotoxicity, or heart faliure, in some patients. For this reason, Adriamycin is seldom prescribed for patients who have had heart problems of any kind in the past.

It is administered as an intravenous injection or infusion, and comes in a variety of compounds and brands. It is usually administered by an RN during an outpatient visit which lasts around 3-5 hours (this is due to the need to infuse or inject the drug slowly to reduce side effects).

This drug is used to treat a variety of cancers and to treat some autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Wegener's granulomatosis. It is often given in conjunction with Adriamycin in four separate treatments spaced 2-3 weeks apart. It is a different type of compound, and is actually not effective in the human body until it is processed by the liver, and converted to its active state.

While it does not cause the level of side effects that Adriamycin does, it has the potential for a few serious complications. It can damage the bladder's lining, called the epithelium, and thus interfere with a patients ability to pass and/or store urine effectively. This is uncommon, however, and can be prevented by proper hydration.

It is associated with nausea and vomiting, but less so than Adriamycin.

Taxol is a different type of drug from the two listed above. It is usually given after the administration of four treatments of the other two drugs, and is given in four cycles of treatment spaced two weeks apart. Because it is a totally diferent compound and is used mostly for aggressive lung, breast, and ovarian cancers, it is the least typical out of the three drugs listed in this article. It also causes less serious side effects than Adriamycin and Cytoxan, but is expensive, and thus not typically available to those without adequate health insurance coverage.

While the three drugs descibed on this page are one typical chemotherapy treatment, there many different combinations and other derivative drugs that work in much the same way but with slightly different pharmacology and side effects. There are several links to the right with more information and resources to learn about cancer and chemo.

The important thing to keep in mind is that chemotherapy is most effective when paired with other types of cancer treatment, including surgery, radiation, and estrogen blocking drugs like tamoxifen. So while chemo represents a medical breakthrough that has saved the lives of thousands and added to the quality of life of thousands more, it is not a cure, and we all should give whatever effort they can muster to help doctors and scientists move toward the ultimate goal: the end of cancer for mankind.