Cancer Information

Posts Tagged ‘chemotherapy’

The chemotherapy is one of the most effective treatments for cancer, but rather unpleasant side effects for the patient, such as nausea and vomiting. These usually cause discomfort and concern, but you can find different methods to control them.

Generally, the greatest episodes of vomiting and nausea occur after the first course of chemotherapy . It is normal that these attacks are causing a reaction to the drugs used or smell which is enhanced after treatment.

To control these episodes, it’s best to relax, pamper yourself with food, try not to eat foods high in fat or too sweet, exercise and look for some alternative therapy and general relaxation method.

While there are some medications that help control nausea and vomiting after chemotherapy sessions, patients often have an aversion to them. However, you can find some options outside of conventional medicine to address this issue.

For example, some people recommend the application of methods from traditional Chinese medicine such as acupressure, acupuncture and other relaxation techniques using breathing, music and meditation. Moreover, although in many countries and regions use is prohibited, we recommend the use of medicinal cannabis as an effective method to control vomiting and nausea.

Best of discomfort in these cases is to relax, unwind and be patient. Remember that although are unpleasant side effects are the result of a treatment that will help them greatly improve their quality of life.

You can administer chemotherapy in several ways. The most frequent oral and intravenous, but it is also possible or intramuscularly administered through catheters.The oral form when the drug is consumed as a capsule or tablet in the mouth. Oral administration is convenient, as it only requires that the patient swallow a pill. The intravenous, or IV, is when, as a liquid, we introduce the drug directly into circulation by a small needle is inserted usually in the arm.

Chemotherapy given by intramuscular injection into the muscle tissue. Is very similar to receiving a joint injection. The chemotherapy injected into a muscle disperse more slowly in the body if administered by the intravenous route. Read the rest of this entry »

Chemotherapy, which involves using chemicals to kill cancer cells is a major therapeutic technologies used to fight cancer. Chemotherapy is one of the three most important methods used to treat cancer, works by interfering with the ability of the cancer cell to grow. They are also used radiation and surgery, which can be combined with chemotherapy.

The high efficacy of chemotherapy is a result of its ability to treat cancer spread (metastatic), the one that comes in more than one body site. Such capability makes it very important to chemotherapy in a patient’s struggle to overcome cancer since radiation therapy and surgery are only suitable for treating cancer in localized areas. When using these three treatments combined, their complementary route to attack the disease often offer the patient a better chance of beating cancer. Read the rest of this entry »

Antimetabolites

Antimetabolites are types of chemotherapy treatments similar to normal substances found within the cell. When the cells incorporate these substances into the cellular metabolism, lose the ability to divide.

Antimetabolites are cell cycle specific. They attack cells at very specific phases of the cycle. Antimetabolites are classified according to the substances with which they interfere.
* Folic acid antagonist: Methotrexate.
* Pyrimidine antagonists: 5-fluorouracil, floxuridine, cytarabine, capecitabine and gemcitabine.
* Purine Antagonists: 6-mercaptopurine and 6-thioguanine.
* Adenosine deaminase inhibitor: Cladribine, fludarabine, and pentostatin nelarabine. Read the rest of this entry »

Alkylating agents

Alkylating agents are most active during the resting phase cells. These drugs are cell cycle specific. There are several types of alkylating agents used in chemotherapy treatments:
* Mustard gas derivatives: Mechlorethamine, cyclophosphamide, chlorambucil, melphalan and ifosfamide.
* Ethyleneimine: thiotepa and hexamethylmelamine.
* Alkylsulfonates: Busulfan.
* Hydrazines and Triazines: altretamine, procarbazine, dacarbazine and temozolomide.
* Nitrosoureas: carmustine, lomustine, and streptozocin. The nitrosoureas are unique because, unlike most types of chemotherapy, they can pass across the blood brain barrier (blood-brain). May be useful for the treatment of brain tumors.
* Sales of metal: carboplatin, cisplatin and oxaliplatin. Read the rest of this entry »

TREATMENTS OF LUNG CANCER

The prognosis and choice of treatment depend on the extent to which stage the cancer, tumor size or type of lung cancer.

The surgery involves removing the tumor and some tissue from the surrounding area and is often used in the early stages of the disease

Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells.

Radiation therapy using high energy X-rays to kill cancer cells and shrink the tumor. Read the rest of this entry »

Chemotherapy is one of the most commonly used therapeutic modalities in the treatment of cancer. Its aim is to destroy, using a variety of drugs, the cells that make up the tumor in order to achieve the reduction or elimination of the disease.

The drugs used in this treatment are called antineoplastic or chemotherapeutic drugs.These drugs reach almost all tissues of the body and that’s where they exert their action both on malignant cells and healthy ones. Due to the action of drugs on the latter may appear a series of more or less severe symptoms, known side effects.
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The ideal anticancer drug should only be able to destroy malignant cells without causing adverse effects to the body, but this option does not exist, because the nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy can be so strong that patients abandon the treatment reach , which severely limits their recovery.

However, chemotherapy treatment is essential to remove malignant tumors and thus achieve healing. To reverse and control the adverse effects of nausea and vomiting caused by the chemotherapy, science has developed substances called antiemetic can minimize or even eliminate these side effects.

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Overall, pleural tumors can not be removed surgically. It must treat the original cancer (primary). Depending on the type of primary cancer, radiotherapy or chemotherapy may be appropriate.

Therapeutic thoracentesis may be performed if fluid accumulation is large and causing pressure, shortness of breath or other breathing problems (such as low oxygen levels). Removing the fluid may allow the lung to expand more and can ease breathing difficulties.

To prevent fluid from building up again, sometimes medication will be placed in the thoracic space through a tube or a surgeon can insert a scope through a small incision in the chest wall to remove fluid (thoracoscopy). Then a drug is sprayed or powder on the surface to prevent lung cancer cells produce more fluid in the future.

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Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. It is the leading cause of cancer death among men and women in the United States. Cigarette smoking causes most lung cancers. A greater number of cigarettes they smoke daily newspapers and the younger you start smoking, the greater the risk of developing lung cancer. Exposure to high levels of pollution, radiation and asbestos can also increase the risk.

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