Post Chemotherapy Essay

Her first time having breast cancer was in 2007. She had ductal carcinoma in her right breast with 13 positive lymph nodes. One week after her lumpectomy, her doctors and oncologists started her on a Adriamycin and Cytoxan mixture, which is considered to be the best drug combination for chemotherapy against breast cancer. She mentioned to me that “...the treatment was by infusion through a portacath. They first would give me Zantac. Then, I got a steroid followed by the Cytoxan.” Her chemo was given intravenously into her vein through an IV. The Adriamycin was manually injected slowly into her IV. It was kept in the refrigerator so she could feel the coldness passing through her veins. She had only four treatments of this, with one being given every three weeks. Each treatment took about four hours to complete. The day following her treatment she was given a shot called Neulasta, which helped her bones to create more white blood cells to replace the ones the chemo was killing. “This would make my bones ache especially in my head,” she said. Her hair started to fall out only two weeks after her first treatment, and she shaved her head that night. She said the first treatment made her tired, but she never got sick. After each treatment she would get a little sicker, and by her fourth treatment she vomited for six days straight. Her next four treatments were with a drug called Taxol, which is made from

Hyponatremia is a common electrolyte imbalance seen by medical professionals. The cause is a disruption of sodium water homeostasis usually maintained by “complex multi-system physiological mechanism” explained Soiza et al (2014).

In patients with renal failure the two most common electrolyte abnormalities are hyperkalemia and hypermagnesemia. Hyperkalemia results due to decreased renal excretion resulting from renal failure. Both of these abnormalities are initially treated with IV calcium gluconate if the patients are symptomatic. The calcium is given to antagonize the effects of hyperkalemia and hypermagnesemia. The calcium acts to protect the heart muscle temporarily until other treatments can be administered. It is imperative to monitor the patient closely with and ECG when IV calcium is administered due to calcium induced

Tis means that the cancer cells are only growing in the most superficial layer of tissue, without growing into deeper tissues. This is also known as in situ cancer or pre-cancer.

There are so many risks associated with the use of chemotherapy drugs to treat cancer. The major reason for this is that, chemotherapy drugs works on both normal cells and cancer cells. Therefore, while killing cancer cells, it kills normal cells as well. Additional risk can arise from overdose, extravasation (when an injected drug finds its way from the intended vessel to surrounding tissues) from cancer injections and serious damage to important organs of the body. Thankfully, drugs like Totect (Dexrazoxane Hydrochloride) have been developed to combat the effects of any risk that manifest in patients while undergoing chemotherapy.

The enhanced production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) damages normal tissues and therefore results in toxic side effects of chemotherapeutic agents. However increase use The chemotherapy(DOX) is accompanied by various side effects such as vomiting, diarrhoea, anorexia, lethargy, fever, alopecia, anaemia, neutropenia etc. (Sorenmo,2003)

Losing hair can be a very traumatizing experience for children who have cancer and are going through chemotherapy. Holly Christensen is making fairy tales come true for little girls battling cancer by making Disney princesses’ wigs for them.

Taste alteration is a common side effect in cancer patients who are receiving chemotherapy. Previous research reported that 46-86% of cancer patients who are receiving chemotherapy experienced taste alteration. In breast cancer patients, 36-86% experienced taste alteration and it was bothersome side effect that ranks fourth after fatigue, hair loss, nausea.

Surgery. Radiation. Chemotherapy. Repeat. The treatments that are supposed to cure you bring you closer to the brink of death than you have ever been before. At the final stages, many people pray for death to relieve their suffering. This high tech form of torture should not be how it ends anyone. I watched my 79-year-old grandmother endure these treatments over the course of six months as she slowly slipped into the abyss that is death. By the end, she was no longer the same grandmother that would wake up early whenever we slept over to make us milkshakes and pancakes for breakfast, no longer the same grandmother that seemed to know everything there was to know. This is what people go through every day. Individuals, families, loved ones, they

Adverse Drug Reactions in Response to Chemotherapy are especially common as Chemotherapy Drugs are characterized by a narrow therapeutic window, high toxicity profile and high failure rate.

hyperkalemia.9Another drug treatment for malignant hyperthermia is azumolene, which is a muscle relaxant that prevents calcium to release from sarcoplasmic reticulum.17 Since patients with malignant hyperthermia experience a rapid elevation of their body temperature, their body must be cooled; this can be done by supplying cooling products, such as cooling blankets, cold intravenous fluids, and fans.7 To treat acidosis, the condition where the patient’s pH level is below 7.2, sodium bicarbonate or Tris buffer is used to raise the pH level.7 Furthermore, hyperventilation with 100% oxygen is crucial to decrease the partial pressure of carbon

Cancer has affected the lives of each and every one of us alive today. Many people have know someone with cancer, yet even those who haven't have been bombarded with constant reminders of its terrible threat. Although cancer is often referred to as a single condition, it actually consists of more than 100 different diseases, all characterized by the uncontrolled growth, reproduction, and spread of abnormal body cells. All of these diseases are individually unique, yet the basic processes that produce cancers are very similar (Ruddon, 1995). The human body consists of over 30 trillion cells, living in a complex, interdependent harmony. They regulate each other's proliferation; normal cells reproduce

[23] and Doyle et al. [53]. We applied the results of the former study to the model, because it was more relevant in terms of health states. The study derived utilities in health states of NSCLC IIIb and IV and disutilities in grade III-IV toxicities under the situation where metastatic NSCLC patients received second-line chemotherapy. Only, we recited disutility in anemia from Westwood et al. [14]. We assumed that adverse events occurred during the first cycle, and adverse event rates relied on the type of treatment regimen regardless of the first-line or the second-line treatment. Finally, in case of an oral medication, 0.02 obtained from Tabberer et al. [24] was added to the utilities investigated by Nafees et al., because the study was carried out under the situation on intravenous treatments such as pemetrexed or

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

A new drug in the UK has embarked on initial clinical trials for advanced cancer patients