Small Cell Lung Cancer Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy as you know is used to treat various kinds of cancer. This mode of treatment is known to act on the cancerous cells either by destroying them completely or by slowing down their growth process. Chemotherapy can be administered into the vein, orally, topically or even into the muscles. These drugs are known to enter your bloodstream passing throughout the body thus reaching out to the cancer cells; this kind of treatment is called systemic chemotherapy. The mode of treatment used depends upon the stage of cancer as well as the type of cancer.
The most effective mode of treating small cell lung cancer is chemotherapy as in this kind of cancer the disease attacks the lung tissues. The kind of chemotherapy to be administered is decided by the doctor as this mode of treatment is known to have positive results.
Though radiotherapy as well as surgery is other options to treat small cell lung cancer as both these modes are local mode of treatments, chemotherapy is applied throughout the body. This is basically done when the cancer cells spread to other parts of the body away from the main source, these cancer cells are minute and are often invisible in the scans, though the scan reports may be clear to prevent it from spreading the doctors suggest that you need to undergo chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy is the best mode of treatment for treating small lung cancer, but then sometimes doctors also opt for radiotherapy before chemotherapy. The doctors feel that this microscopic cell spread from the main tumor and affects the other parts of the body even in the initial stages of cancer thus chemotherapy is the best option with or without surgery.
Surgery removes almost all those cancerous cells but then too doctors suggest chemotherapy so as to leave no chances for recurrence of cancer cell growth in the body as chemotherapy increases the chances of survival and this mode of treatment after surgery is called as adjuvant chemotherapy.
The two most commonly used drugs to treat small cell lung cancer are etoposide and cisplatin and these are combination drugs. These drugs are known to give good results but then work is going on to find better drugs to lessen the side effects that are known to be the results of chemotherapy.
There are various other combination drugs that are used to treat small cell lung cancer like CAV (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and vincristine), ACE (doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide and etoposide) is often used when there is an relapse of the disease and GemCarbor or (gemcitabine and carboplatin).
Topotecan yet another type of chemotherapy is often recommended when there is a recurrence of small cell lung cancer. Though this kind of chemotherapy is used only for patients who are unable to sustain to drug doxorubicin as this drug is known to damage the heart.
All modes of cancer treatments have some or the other side effects and these side effects vary from patient to patient as well as the overall health of the patient. The most commonly noticed side effects due to chemotherapy are vomiting, loss of appetite, loss of memory, hair loss, low blood count etc. Though the side effects due to chemotherapy are not permanent and disappear after the course of the treatment even then you need to consult your doctor before going in for chemotherapy so that you are fully aware of the side effects.