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Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy, or simply chemo, is the control or treatment of a disease with the use of chemical agents. It works by slowing or preventing the growth of cancer cells, which which develop and multiply rapidly.

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How is chemotherapy made?

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Asked by Wiki User

Chemotherapy refers to the use of cytotoxic drugs in cancer treatment.'Chemo' means medicine or 'drug''therapy' means 'treatment'.

Chemotherapeutic agents or drugs are 'magic bullets' that destroy the fast-dividing cancer cells. However these drugs are unable to differentiate between the normal cells and the cancer cells and they destroy the former too, in their war against cancer. This leads to certain side effects.

Can you get a TB skin test while getting chemotherapy?

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Asked by Wiki User

Yes, but because your immune system is compromised (e.g. you got cancer because your immune system isn't working at its best, and you just had chemo), the provider "reading" the TB skin test result will follow guidelines for immunocompromised patients. You may have less of a response than a patient with a normally functioning immune system. This usually means that a raised "induration" is read as positive when it is smaller than the regular guidelines.

How do you raise red blood count after chemotherapy?

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Asked by Wiki User

FIlters the unhealthy sells.

To stop disease by engulfing and digesting microorganisms or creating anti-bodies to combat microorganisms. They make up the immune system keeping the human body healthy and disease free.
Basically, red blood cells carry oxygen the the organs, and white blood cells fight off disease.

Is chemotherapy used for treatment other than cancer?

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Asked by Wiki User

Yes. Methotrexate is now being used as a treatment (low dosage) for some autoimmune diseases, including ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and scleroderma.

Why chemotherapy patients face a lot of pain?

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Asked by Wiki User

Beacause there are alot of people that have cancer that would want to pay less, but the factories and shipment has to be paid for by the people who earn the money.

What do you mean by radiotherapy and chemotherapy?

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Asked by Wiki User

Radiotherapy is the process of applying radiation on the tumors [gamma rays]. Chemotherapy is the process of using drugs to destroy the tumors.

Radiotherapy and chemotherapy usually comes with surgery; it also appears more frequently in higher stages of cancer [stages 3, 4].

What are four categories of chemotherapy drugs and describe their mechanism of action?

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Asked by Wiki User

what are four categories of chemotherapy drugs and describe their mechanism of action..

What are some of the names of commonly used drugs for colon cancer chemotherapy?

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Asked by Wiki User

Nothing artificial. I've heard good things about hemp oil, but it's hard to get a hold of since the government renamed it to "marijuana" and made it illegal.

What are the negative side effects of chemotherapy?

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Asked by Wiki User

well 2 b honest I'm avin chemotherapy maself but here r the side affects.

*Very sore mouth.

*Sickness (feeling sick and throwing up.)

*Loss of appetite.

*sHORTAGE OF HEALTHY BLOOD CELLS.

Do Jehovah's Witnesses believe in chemotherapy?

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Asked by Wiki User

Yes we take care of ourselves with reasonable medical treatments. Luke the Bible writer of Acts of the Apostles was a Physician! He wrote under inspiration as stated:

(Acts 15:28, 29) "28 For the holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to you except these necessary things: 29 to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper. Good health to you!""

How does chemotherapy work in healing?

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Asked by Wiki User

Chemotherapy works in healing by the use of certain chemicals to eliminate cancer cells. Often times it is helpful due to the fact it can eliminate cancer cells discovered far from where the cancer was first located.

How does the infusion pump facilitate chemotherapy for the liver?

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Asked by GaleEncyofMedicine

The pump allows much higher concentrations of the cancer drug to be carried to the tumor than is possible with chemotherapy carried through the bloodstream.

Is regrowth of hair possible after taking radiation treatment in head for chemotherapy?

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Asked by Wiki User

It depends on the person's general health, what type of cancer and what type of chemotherapy was received but generally your hair would grow back. Chemo basically kills cells that multiple like the cancer cells but sometimes also attacks healthy cells. Before hair loss occurs there are things you can do to lessen the chances of hair loss but you can't prevent it. Use mild shampoo, try to avoid using rollers, curling irons, colouring or bleeching you hair. Cut your hair as it will make your hair seem fuller, and if you do lose you hair, losing shorter hair seems to be less of a problem for some. There is the option of having a wig and try and get it before treatment starts so you can try match your hair type. Check if you insurance covers wigs. After lossing your hair wear sunscreen, hats,or head scarfs to protect your scalp. In the winter wear beanies or caps to bed to keep your head warm. When your hair grown back it is a possiblity of the regrowth having a different colour or being curly when you hair was straight before you treatment. So answering you question your if you take precautions your hair is more likely to grow back but it usually would anyways. : )

What are some side effects of chemotherapy?

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Asked by Wiki User

Chemotherapy is an aggressive form of chemical drug therapy meant to destroy rapidly growing cells in the body. Doctors often recommend chemotherapy as a treatment for cancer. Chemotherapy uses drugs that kill dividing cancer cells and prevent them from growing.

Common side effects, but it's unlikely you'll have all of these:

  • Tiredness
  • Feeling and being sick
  • Hair loss
  • Infections
  • Anaemia
  • Bruising and bleeding
  • Sore mouth
  • Loss of appetite

What side effects are caused by long term steroid use?

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Asked by Wiki User

Anabolic steroids cause many different types of problems. Some of the more serious or long-lasting side effects are: * premature balding or hair loss * dizziness * mood swings, including anger, aggression, and depression * seeing or hearing things that aren't there (hallucinations) * extreme feelings of mistrust or fear (paranoia) * problems sleeping * nausea and vomiting * trembling * high blood pressure that can damage the heart or blood vessels over time * aching joints * greater chance of injuring muscles and tendons * jaundice or yellowing of the skin; liver damage * urinary problems * shortening of final adult height * increased risk of developing heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer Specific risks for girls associated with anabolic steroids include: * increased facial hair growth * development of masculine traits, such as deepening of the voice, and loss of feminine body characteristics, such as shrinking of the breasts * enlargement of the clitoris * menstrual cycle changes Specific risks for guys include: * testicular shrinkage * pain when urinating * breast development * impotence (inability to get an erection) * sterility (inability to have children) Steroids can also have serious psychological side effects. Some users become aggressive or combative, developing "roid rage" - extreme, uncontrolled bouts of anger caused by long-term steroid use. Steroid users who inject the drugs with a needle are at risk for infection with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), the virus that causes AIDS, if they share needles with other users. People who use dirty needles are also at greater risk for contracting hepatitis, a disease of the liver, or bacterial endocarditis, an infection of the inner lining of the heart. Some people combine or "stack" anabolic steroids with other drugs. Other steroid users may "pyramid" or "cycle" their steroid doses, starting with a low dose of stacked drugs and then periodically increasing and decreasing the dosage of the steroid, which users believe helps their bodies recuperate from the drugs. Because even scientists don't understand exactly how steroids interact with each other or possibly cause reactions to other medications, it's possible that a person who stacks or cycles steroids can take a deadly combination. Emergency departments have reported cases of vomiting, tremors, dizziness, and even coma (unconsciousness) when patients were admitted after taking combinations of steroids. A lot of people tell themselves they'll only use steroids for a season or a school year. Unfortunately, steroids can be addictive, making it hard to stop taking them. Steroid users can spend lots of time and money trying to get the drugs. And once users stop taking steroids, they're at risk of developing irritability, paranoia, and severe depression, which may lead to suicidal thoughts or attempted suicide. Some of the long-term effects of steroids may not show up for many years. People who use steroids also appear to be at higher risk for using other drugs, such as alcohol or cocaine.

Is chemotherapy absolutely necessary?

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Asked by Wiki User

Certain types and stages of cancer are easily treated with chemotherapy. You must investigate each case individually of what can be reliably done.

Statistics are available on 5, 10, and greater year survival rates with certain forms of cancer, certain stages of cancer, and certain combinations of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Check for the patient selection criteria for inclusion in such trials--some studies will reject patients if the prognosis is too poor-- for example, stage of cancer is to high, and death is too likely, and will make the outcome of therapy look extremely poor.

Some randomized control trials on this are also available.

If a certain "type and stage" of cancer is selected, the survival rates may be around zero, but for others it may be greater than 90%--it all depends on the initial prognosis. Some cancer spreads to other places--this affects the survival rates.

Some critics have indicated that the studies are often funded and conducted by the particular drug companies who produce the given chemotherapeutic agents, and so cannot be taken as fully reliable due to numerous financial conflicts of interest.

Critics have correctly identified that some patients do not survive the treatment and in many studies these deaths are excluded from the statistics because, strictly speaking, the patients did not die of cancer, and nor were they able to complete the full schedule of treatments due to their premature deaths. A published study might therefore state that 197 people were in the study, but this number might exclude 100,000 patients who died of the therapy instead of cancer.

Certain forms of alternative cancer therapies claim to have certain levels of efficacy, but unbiased measures of efficacy (published statistical studies) are unavailable. Because of this, alternative cancer therapies rely heavily upon individual case studies / anecdotal / testimonials that must be found in web videos, or off-shore web sites. Some alternative cancer treatment methods are recommended by word of mouth by friends, relatives, and acquaintances.

Cancer videos are searchable. View them with a grain of salt by considering if the patients are paid for appearing in the videos. Some of these alternative therapy patients state that their situation was otherwise hopeless--they had no choice except alternative therapies because surgeons could not cut out their remaining lungs, heart, vital organs, etc, without killing them.

Some web sites state that the cure for cancer has been known since the 1920s to 1940s, but has been kept from the public for the reasons of population reduction by the Rockefeller foundation. (See National de-industrialized cancer population control cure suppressed 1969 Dr. Richard Day planned parenthood Rockefeller). (See also "the Rick Simpson Story").

Why do side effects of chemotherapy occur?

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Asked by Wiki User

Drug side effects are from an unexpected activity of either the chemical itself in the medicine or a metabolite of the drug as your body processes it. Researchers cannot possibly predict what every single human body will do to a chemical because of variations in subject genetic makeup and environmental variability.

Does chemotherapy make you sick?

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Asked by Wiki User

It really depends upon the individual. Some people do get very sick, while others have minimal or no side effects. I realise this is a wishy washy answer, but each person responds differently to the chemo.

Answer:

Chemotherapy can be unpleasant, as can radiation treatment, however it works to make you better, not make you sick. No medical procedure is without side effects. Operations hurt and recovery times can be long, injections make you feverish and chemo makes you uncomfortable. However the consequences of not enduring the relatively minor side effects must be compared to the option of being dead.

What medications are used in systemic chemotherapy to treat liver cancer?

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Asked by Wiki User

Chemotherapy is treatment used to treat various cancers, the drugs destroy cancer cells or prevent them from growing. Chemotherapy can also be administered directly into the liver artery and is called intra-arterial chemotherapy. Liver tumors derive their blood supply from the hepatic artery, and intra-arterial administration will expose the tumor to very high doses of chemotherapy (100 - 400 times higher values than systemic infusion).This increased drug exposure achieves tumor shrinkage in 50 - 70% of patients. The two most commonly used drugs are 5 FU and FUDR. Administering combinations of drugs can improve the chance of tumor shrinkage.

Can babies receive chemotherapy?

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Asked by Wiki User

yes. Chemotherapy is an internal medication with no adverse side effects to people near the patient.

What are the contraindication of chemotherapy?

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Asked by Wiki User

Nausea and vomiting associated with other causes such as biochemical processes, mucocitis, alopecia, tumor lysis syndrome, infertility, secondary malignant, extravasation, administration of drugs into the spine, handling, transporting and disposal of cytotoxis., older age, male and too much alcohol

How long is chemo in your body?

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Asked by Wiki User

Most chemotherapy drugs are eliminated from the body quickly, generally within 48-73 hours. However the metabolites of the drugs can stay in your system for a varied length of time. Complications such as organ damage can prolong the time it takes to eliminate the drugs.