Chemotherapy Drugs for Lung Cancer

Chemotherapy as you know is a mode of treatment used to treat various kinds of cancer. Chemotherapy drugs can be administered as a single drug or in combination depending upon the type of cancer, stage of cancer. But most of the time chemotherapy is administered using combination drugs so as to reduce the side effects that are associated with chemotherapy.

The use of various combination drugs vary as every aspect of the person suffering from cancer is taken into consideration before administering these drugs. As in case of lung cancer there are different kinds of lung cancer and the two kinds of lung cancer that are common are the small cell lung cancer and the non small cell lung cancer. The drug used to treat lung cancer different using different combinations. Some of the most commonly but effectively used drugs to treat lung cancer are, Cisplatin, Etoposide, Carboplatin, Docetaxel, Gemcitabine, Topotecan, Pemetrexed, Paclitaxel, Erlotinib, Irinotecan, Vinorelbine.

These drugs are usually administered in combination of two or more. The combination used here are

1. Vinorelbine and carboplatin or cisplatin.
2. Paclitaxel and carboplatin
3. MIC (mitomycin, ifosfamide and cisplatin)
4. Carboplatin or cisplatin along with Gemicitabine
5. EC (etoposide and carboplatin)

The way these drugs are administered varies as there are some drugs that are injected into the vein; some are administered in oral form as they come in the form of tablets, capsules or in liquid form. The most important thing is chemotherapy is not a single cycle treatment; the treatment is given in at least 4 – 6 cycles giving the patient time to recover in between each cycle. This recovery period is important as it gives the patient time to recover from the side effects that are associated with chemotherapy mode of treatment. Not only this chemotherapy can be administered right within the walls of your own house, or as an outpatient , even in your doctor’s clinic or sometimes you may need to be hospitalized depending upon the stage of cancer you are suffering from.

All kinds of chemotherapy treatments are known to cause side effects. These drugs not only destroy the cancerous cells but also destroy those normal healthy cells that surround these cancerous cells, along with this some noticeable side effects are loss of hair, mouth sores, loss of memory, nausea, fatigue, diarrhoea, skin rashes etc. These symptoms are temporary and disappear after the completion of the treatment but then there are certain side effects that are cause damage to the interior organs of your body thus giving some permanent side effects like they are known to effect the skin, bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract hair follicles, it is also known to damage the reproductive organs i.e. the fertility etc. But then these types of permanent side effects are few depending upon the stage of cancer, overall health of the person and age of the person suffering from cancer.

Chemotherapy treatment helps increase the chances of survival, slows down the spread of cancer and reoccurrence of cancer.