What Does Chemotherapy Mean?
Chemotherapy is a treatment method that employs a cocktail of drugs to destroy or slow cancer cell growth.
- Cytotoxic drugs (meaning “toxic to cells”) are typically administered orally or intravenously (or “through the bloodstream”).
- Chemotherapy is a systemic therapy, meaning the drugs travel throughout the body via the bloodstream.
Who Needs Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer?
Most patients are offered chemotherapy based on several factors, including:
- Tumour classification
- Tumour classification
- The size of the tumour
- Status and receptor type
- The number and degree of involvement of lymph nodes
- The possibility of cancer spreading to other parts of the body
Your medical team will work together to determine the best combination of chemotherapy drugs to suppress each stage of cancer cell growth.
How Is Breast Cancer Chemotherapy Given?
Chemotherapy is frequently used with other treatments, such as hormonal and targeted therapies. It can also shrink a tumour before surgery, making removal easier and safer. This is known as neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
If you are given chemotherapy, it will be given in short courses with several weeks in between to allow your normal cells to recover. This treatment period can be emotionally and physically taxing. You must form a support group of family or friends who can comfort and encourage you during this difficult time.
What Are Chemotherapy’s Side Effects?
Although chemotherapy kills rapidly dividing cancer cells, the drugs can also harm normal cells that divide rapidly.
- Red blood cell count may be reduced. When drugs reduce the number of healthy blood cells in your body, you are more likely to get infections, bruises or bleed easily and feel extremely weak and tired. Your medical team will look for low blood cell counts. If your levels are low, then the healthcare team may temporarily stop the chemotherapy or reduce the drug dose. Some medications can assist your body in producing new blood cells.
- You could have a decrease in white blood cells. A decrease in white blood cells can increase your risk of infection. This is why it’s critical to avoid people with a cold or flu, eat healthy meals, get plenty of rest, and take your temperature daily. An elevation in your body temperature is usually the first sign that your white blood cell count is extremely low, known as neutropenia. There are medications that your medical oncologist can prescribe to help your white blood cell count increase again.
- Chemotherapy may have an impact on the cells that produce hair. Chemotherapy may result in hair loss. It will regrow if you lose your hair, but the colour and texture may be altered.
- Changes in your intestinal tract may result from a different balance of cells. Chemotherapy can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and mouth and lip sores. Your healthcare team can prescribe medications and suggest other solutions to these issues.
- Chemotherapy may affect nerve cells. Some breast cancer medications can cause tingling or numbness in the hands or feet. Peripheral neuropathy is the medical term for this type of side effect. This usually goes away once the treatment is finished. Red blood cell count may be reduced.
Is there any long-term side effect of chemotherapy?
Sometimes people have problems that do not go away. Some drugs used to treat breast cancer, for example, may weaken the heart. Your heart may be checked before, during, and after treatment by your doctor. A rare side effect of chemotherapy is that a few women have developed leukaemia years after treatment (cancer of the blood cells).
Some chemotherapy drugs can cause ovarian damage. If you have not reached menopause stage yet , you may experience hot flashes and vaginal dryness. Your menstrual cycles may become irregular or cease entirely. You could become infertile (unable to become pregnant).
After Completing Chemotherapy Treatments, Can I Have Children?
Because many drugs used during the first trimester are known to cause congenital disabilities, you should discuss family planning with your doctor before starting treatment.
Although chemotherapy can be a very personal and difficult experience, thousands today are grateful for its life-saving and life-extending potential.
