Chemotherapy Options
Chemotherapy is an anti-cancer mode of treatment to destroy the rapid growing cancer cells in your body. Depending upon the type of cancer different types of chemotherapy options are offered with an equally good result. Previously only single drug chemotherapy was the option for any kind of cancer and the results were also not very good but today combination drug chemotherapy is being offered and the success rates are also far better.
Chemotherapy has two options in offer i.e. single drug chemotherapy wherein a single drug is administered while combination chemotherapy offers a combination of two or more drugs. Single drug chemotherapy’s side effects are far less compared to combination drug chemotherapy but then the benefits of it are also less. Single drug chemotherapy is recommended to patients who have been diagnosed with cancer in advanced stages when the body is weak and cannot tolerate the effects of combination drugs.
Some of the drugs that doctors recommend for single drug chemotherapy are docetaxel or taxotere, Abraxane (albumin-bound paclitaxel), Taxol (paclitaxel), Adriamycin (doxorubicin), Navelbine (vinorelbine), Xeloda (capecitabine), and Gemzar (gemcitabine).
Certain drugs have proved to be beneficiary to certain types of cancer like Taxol, Taxotere or Abraxane have proved more effective than Adriamycin in helping shrink tumours especially in women. Side effects are also associated with single drug chemotherapy but then the side effects are less.
Drug Taxotere has been found to be more effective compared to Taxol to treat advanced stages of breast cancer. Side effects are more and Abraxane gives better results than Taxol with lesser side effects. Taxotere or Taxol is administered in small doses on weekly bases giving good results and fewer side effects. Gemzar and Navelbine is also used to shrink tumours and control the symptoms without causing too much of side effects and this also includes less loss of hair.
Combination drug chemotherapy is yet another option that is being offered to cancer patients, the drugs used here attack the cancer cells in a different ways without overlapping either the effects or the side effects of the other combination drug used thus giving better results with fewer side effects too.
Most frequently recommended combination drugs are:
- AT: Adriamycin +Taxotere
- AC+- T: i.e. Adriamycin along with cyclophosphamide sometimes with or without Taxol
- CEF: cyclophosphamide, epirubicin, 5- FU
- CMF: cyclophosphamide, methodtrexate and 5-FU
- FAC: fluorouracil, adriamycin and cyclophosphamide
- GET: gemcitabine, epirubin, taxol
- TAC: taxotere, adriamycin and cyclophosphamide
- CAF: cyclophosphamide, adriamycin and 5-FU
- Bevancizumab or Avastin along with Taxol or Abraxane.
During the course of treatment when adriamycin drug is being administered the cancerous cells continue their growth then the use of Taxol or taxotere has been found to be more effective. Yet another chemotherapy drug that is considered is Abraxane which the body tolerates better without requiring the use of other steroids. A combination of Xeloda with Taxotere and Taxol along with Gemzar is also effective and if none of the above mentioned treatment works out then yet another combination of chemotherapy drug that can be administered is Mitomycin and vincristine.