Leukemia Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is a mode of treating cancer and in this mode of treatment the drugs used destroy the cancerous cells that affect the body organs either by destroying them completely or by slowing down the spread and growth of these cancerous cells in the body. Chemotherapy in other words is also referred to as anti-cancer agents who are known to destroy completely various kinds of cancer including leukaemia.
Some of the cancers like lymphoma, leukaemia and myeloma need radiation therapy along with chemotherapy. Here the drugs given are in high dosage which again is followed by stem cell transplantation.
Though chemotherapy treatment can be administered using a single drug but then the use of combination drugs have shown more effective results than the use of single drug especially to treat leukaemia. The combination drugs act differently to different kinds of cancer and the effectiveness of these drugs depends upon the type of cancer as well as the stages of cancer.
The different drugs used in the treatment of cancers include drugs like melphalan, chlorambucil, mitoxantrone, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, carboplatinum, idarubicin, daunorubicin, methotrexate, cytarabine, vinblastine, fludarabine, etoposide, prednisone, topotecan and dexamethasone which are basically used to treat blood cancer or leukaemia. Most of these chemotherapy drugs are used in combination as they have known to give better results thus increasing the chances of survival.
These drugs can be injected intravenously, intrathecal or intramuscularly and even taken orally. The way the drug is administered largely depends upon the type of cancer and the chemo drug used so that you get the best effective results.
There are certain chemotherapy drugs that come in liquid form, capsule or tablet form which can be taken orally. In this method you don’t need to get yourself hospitalized and it can be taken within the confines of your house. Certain chemotherapy drugs are inserted into your veins instead of the muscle and this mode of treatment is known as subcutaneous injection.
There are certain kinds of leukaemia as well as lymphoma which are known to cause damage to the nervous system as they can spread out there too. To treat such kinds of cancer spinal tap method is used wherein the drug is injected directly into the spinal fluid so that the cancerous cells are destroyed directly. This mode of treatment is known as intrathecal method and in this a device called Omaha reservoir is placed permanently under the scalp for future treatments.
Chemotherapy is basically used to destroy the cancerous cells in our body, but they damage or sometimes even destroy the normal cells surrounding these cancerous cells. There are side effects associated with all kinds of chemotherapy, though some of them disappear after the treatment cycle while there are some that have a permanent effect on the body even after the completion of the treatment.
The side effects associated with chemotherapy are vomiting, loss of memory, low count of white blood cells and red blood cells, hair loss, skin rashes, etc all these symptoms disappear after the completion of the treatment. Some permanent side effects are that these drugs damage the internal organs like the heart, lungs, liver, kidney etc.