Life After Chemotherapy Essay

There are many different type of cancers, there are also many different types of treatments. One of the most known types of treatments would be chemotherapy. Chemotherapy can be used for a wide range of different types of cancers and diseases, and each of the different types of cancers or diseases require a different group, and sometimes order, of chemicals to properly treat the cancer or disease. These chemicals include: Alkylating agents, Antimetabolites, Anthracyclines, Topoisomerase inhibitors, mitotic inhibitors, corticosteroids, and more. Each of these drugs previously listed have its own cancer type(s) or disease(s) that it can assist in treating. Some of these cancers include: Leukemia, Lymphoma, Hodgkin disease, multiple

Cancer has one of the biggest effects on the patients mental health but also the patients loved ones and friends. It is one of the hardest things to get a grip on when the doctor tells someone that they have cancer and a fifty-fifty chance of making it. "The disease can bring many changes-in what people do and how they look, in how they feel and what they value" (Dakota 4). It makes people look at the world and their lives in a different way, valuing now what they took for granted and seeing the bigger picture in every scenario. It is something that no one can actually brace, even after the doctor tells them. Through it all though, the person must remain strong and optimistic because the cancer can affect the person's moods and in return affect the outcome of the person and the chances of their making it

Unfortunately 30% of people in the US will develop cancer at some point, and two-thirds of those will eventually succumb as a result. In dealing with cancer, many patients have symptoms from the disease along with side effects of the medications that are extremely debilitating.

Cancer is not to be taken lightly. This disease does happen to a number of people all over the world every day. A thorough understanding of cancer is vital. This education will provide patients and their loved ones with crucial information about available treatments and how best to cope with the effects of having cancer. This article contains much advice on helping cancer patients cope with the deadly disease.

Chemotherapy is the administration of chemicals into the body in an attempt to cure/lessen the severity of cancer in living organisms. Chemotherapy is always given with a curative intent, but that cannot always be promised to the patient, so sometimes it is given to relieve symptoms that the patients are experiencing or to improve their overall quality of life.1 While chemotherapy is used as an agent to try to rid individuals of their cancer, it is essentially slowly killing them. The chemicals used for the treatment are toxic to the human body and while they are giving them in small amounts, those small amounts accumulate over time to large amounts in the body. The body is affected by the treatment in various different ways and every body

In 2014, the American public was captivated by the story of a young woman who decided to end her life after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman who had just been married, had been having splitting headaches. She went to the doctor and was diagnosed with a tumor. Her life became a blur of hospital visits, treatment plans, and research into what she could do. Her doctors came to the conclusion that there was no treatment that could save Maynard’s life. According to an opinion piece that Maynard wrote for CNN, she “quickly decided that death with dignity was the best option for [her] and [her] family” (Maynard). Since she lived in Oregon, the idea of dying on an individual’s terms was acceptable and legal, because of the Oregon Death with Dignity Act. Maynard died on Saturday, November 1, 2014.

While visions of losing your hair and being sick all the time can be a shocking reality, this is very often not the reality of cancer patients. The field has evolved greatly over the years. Today many people in chemotherapy lead full and active lives.

Chemotherapy is a very term used to describe a wide variety of several different ways to treat cancer. "Chemotherapy is treating cancer with drugs. But this is different from most kinds of drug therapy. Drugs that kill cancer do affect the rest of the patient's cells. Doctors try to work with what makes the cancer cells different to find ways to kill the cells without harm to the rest

Cancer also affects the lives of the caregivers/family members about a little bit different. Family members don’t experience the physical pain but they do encounter the emotional pain. Whenever family member experience a traumatic event it brings a great deal of worry, fear, and even depression throughout the family. Some family member may even isolate themselves because the stress can be overwhelming and hard to deal with.

This paper will examine the cancer diagnosis and staging process, complications, and side effects of treatments. Methods that can be utilized to assist in lessening the physiological and psychological effects of cancer and treatments will also be explored.

While the word chemotherapy means any drug used to treat all kinds of ailment, it has become de facto treatment associated with cancer. Often shortened as “chemo”, this word seems to strike fear into the hearts of cancer patients. But the truth is this, chemotherapy is crucial to the health of a cancer patient. Chemotherapy helps to prevent the spread of cancer to other parts of the body; surgery and radiation are area specific. To be more specific, they can kill cancer cells that have metastasized (spread to other areas) from where initial diagnosis was made.

The hair on our head has a growth rate of about one-half of inch in a month. It grows between 2 and 6 years. After accomplishing this period, it'll begin to fall out often called resting segment and might be replaced by using new hair that has began to grow from the equal hair follicle. This hair cycle goes on in our life besides for circumstances where its progress will probably be disrupted.

We found that, the patients who received Platinum-containing anticancer drugs they experience mainly hypokalemia, hyponatremia and hypomagnesemia, the ones who received chemotherapy with Alkylating agents have mainly developed hyponatremia, and those who received Vinca alkaloid containing regimes are also associated with hyponatremia. Patient who received Epidermal growth factor receptor monoclonal antibody inhibitors mainly experience hypomagnesemia, hypokalemia and hypocalcemia. Other, monoclonal antibodies, such as Cetuximab, mainly cause hyponatremia. All those patients who developed the drug related Tumor Lysis Syndrome their labs showed the incidence of hyperphosphatemia, hyperkalemia and hypocalcemia. We also found the incidence of hyponatremia and hypokalemia among those patients who received the chemotherapy with relatively newer agents like Novolumab. Some other previous international publications are also showed great similarity with our

The three main goals of chemo in cancer are (1) to cure, the disease if possible, (2) to control the spread of the disease or (3) to ease the pain and suffering of a patient with an advanced stage cancer in what is called palliative care. (Cancer.org, 2017) Chemotherapy works by killing any cells in the process of mitosis, which leaves cancer extremely vulnerable due to its rapid division. Unfortunately, chemo affects healthy cells too. The more rapidly dividing cells, like the ones that make up our hair follicles and stomach lining, are severely impacted which is why a lot of patients experience hair loss and nausea. So a big problem with chemotherapy is that many patients will experience nausea, hair loss and other very unpleasant side effects (because of the naturally fast division in parts of the body) and drugs might not work alone. Chemo-therapy is often used in tandem with “radiation”.

Cancer affects more than 750000 and more than 120000 are diagnosed every year, in Australia alone. For more than 50 years, chemotherapy has been prescribed as a main treatment method for cancer. Chemotherapy has been prescribed at least once in 49.1% of all new cancer patients. Based on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Data (2011), more than 2.5 million prescriptions for antineoplastic agents are given to cancer patients annually (Al-Dasooqi et al., 2013, Logan et al., 2008, Logan et al., 2009). However, an acute side effect of chemotherapy observed in cancer patients, which continues to deteriorate a cancer patient’s condition; is mucositis (Al- Dasooqi et al., 2013, Logan et al., 2008, Logan et al., 2009). This affects 20-40% of