Forms of Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is a mode of treatment to treat various types of cancers. There are a number of chemotherapy drugs as each and every cancer needs to be treated differently. In this mode of treatment the drugs used are high powered chemical drugs. It has also been proved that the effect of combination drug chemotherapy is far more beneficial than single drug chemotherapy and the mode of treatment varies from patient to patient depending upon various factors like type of cancer, stage of cancer, overall health of the patient etc.
The chemotherapy drugs are known to have various side effects some temporary and some leaving far more permanent side effects. In this mode of treatment not only the cancerous cells are destroyed but even those healthy cells that surround these cancerous cells are destroyed thus leaving behind side effects like nausea, vomiting, anemia, loss of appetite, memory loss, hair loss, diarrhea, etc. The severity of the side effects also depends upon the dosage of the medicines administered as higher the dosage greater the side effects, though there are certain drugs that help in minimizing the effects of some of these side effects.
Mentioned below are certain types of chemotherapy mode of treatments:
Alkylating agents : In this mode of treatment the chemotherapy drugs are extremely active when the cancer cells are in the resting period thus they prevent the further cell division. Some of these alkylating agents are mustard gas derivatives, alkylsulfonates, triazines, metal salts, hydrazines, ethlenimines and nitrosureas.
Plant alkaloids : these are plant derivatives and some of them are vinca alkaloid is derived from catharanthus rosea or the commonly referred name periwinkle, taxane is obtained from the bark of taxus or the pacific Yew Tree. Both taxane and vinca alkaloids are also called as ant microtubule agents.
Camptothecan analogs is derived from Asian Happy tree, podophyllotoxins and camptothecan are referred to as topoisomerase inhibitors and these are all cell cycle specified alkaloids and are known to destroy the cancerous cells during the various stages of cell division.
Antimetabolites : these on the other hand are more or less chemical drugs which have a similar cell combination that is found in the human body and their main function is to prevent the division of cells. These drugs are also cell specific and are used on in treating particular type of cancer and in a particular phase. These can be further divided into various groups as per their combination of drug used with. Folic acid antagonist, purine antagonist, adenosine deaminase inhibitor, pyrimidine antagonist etc.
Topoisomerase inhibitors : the drugs used here interact with the different topoisomerase enzymes and help control the division of DNA cell structure thus avoid replication of the cells. Ironotecan, amsacrine, phosphate, amsacrine, topotecan are some of the drugs that come under the topoisomerase inhibitors group.
Antitumor Antibiotics : These drugs are products of natural occurring substances like fungus Streptomyces and are very powerful in treating various stages of cancers. Doxorubicin, dactinomycin, mitomycin, plicamycin, bleomycin etc.
There are other types of chemotherapy like the target chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and hormone chemotherapy etc. and the mode of treatment depends upon the type of cancer and the stage of cancer.