CHEMOTHERAPY SERVICE

Chemotherapy treatment uses chemotherapeutic drugs to treat the cancer cells. These medicines are given in blood usually so that they reach all body organs. These drugs act by inhibiting the rapidly diving cells which form the main bulk of disease, the healthy cells are also damaged but they generally recover by themselves. Your treatment may include single drug or multiple drug combination. Usually chemotherapy is given after surgery or along with radiotherapy in most solid organ tumours however, chemotherapy forms the main treatment in a few cancers which are not amenable to chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Sometimes, chemotherapy is given before surgery to decrease the size of tumour to facilitate resection. Chemotherapy is also considered in palliative treatment of disease if it is widespread. Each chemotherapy treatment is formed by multiple cycles of chemotherapy. Each cycle consists of drug administration at a fixed interval (21 days in most solid organ chemotherapy), the interval may vary from chemotherapy to chemotherapy as required. Usually given in blood the chemotherapy may also be given in cerebrospinal fluid, in urinary bladder and topically in some cancers. Chemotherapy may be associated with multiple side effects. The severity of side effects vary from person to person, it may be mild in some and severe in others.
Usual side effects of this treatment are :

• Depletion in blood cell counts leading to anaemia, increased chances of infection, decreased platelet count.
•   Tiredness, decreased appetite, fever, vomiting, constipation and loose motions, mouth ulcers and hair fall.
• Deranged liver enzymes and renal function.
• Tingling in hands and foot, weight loss and loss or reduction in fertility.
• Difficulty in breathing, lung fibrosis, decreased cardiac output, dryness in mouth.
• Irritability, blood transfusions.
• Resistance of the disease to chemotherapy treatment, progression of the disease, recurrence of disease after good initial response, inability to clear disease completely, only palliative treatment is offered as chemotherapy.
• Electrolyte and metabolic disturbances, development of second primary cancers.
• Vary rarely life threatening allergic reactions, cardiac problems, sepsis and any other unexpected complication that may arise.
• Usually after chemotherapy there will be no major side effects and the post treatment course should be smooth, the patient shall be required to take some medicines during the course of treatment.
• All patients need to check white blood cell counts, bilirubin and liver enzymes, urea and creatinine before chemotherapy to see if the drugs can safely be eliminated from body. While on chemotherapy white blood cell count should be monitored in between.