Chemotherapy drugs are pretty numerous and they fall into various categories following such criteria as the way they work, the relationship they establish with other drugs and the chemical structure they have. Most drugs are based on chemicals obtained from plants and this very origin or source leaves room to further classification. And, last but not least, one drug may be found in various categories as they may have several effects on the body of the patient. Doctors have a very precise duty of getting fully informed about chemotherapy drugs and know how to combine them or in what order to prescribe them to cancer patients.

A first category of chemotherapy drugs is the one relying on alkylating agents. These drugs are pretty damaging to the bone marrow because they damage the DNA to prevent the cancerous cells from reproduction. This type of chemotherapy drugs is used in a wide variety of cancers and it is recommended only in small dosage to reduce the risk of leukemia that may appear 5 or 10 years after following the recommended chemotherapy treatment. The platinum based drugs are sometimes included in the same category because they act in a very similar manner against the disease.

Another category of chemotherapy drugs is the one consisting of antimetabolites. They are used in treating leukemia, breast tumors, ovary and intestinal cancers and they also interfere not only with the DNA but also with the RNA.

The anthracyclines are another type of chemotherapy drugs being part of the antibiotic group. They work against enzymes that help in DNA replication and they are encountered in a wide variety of cancer treatments.

Next is the category of inhibitors. The topoisomerase inhibitors help in separating and copying strands of DNA being helpful for the treatment of leukemia besides many other types of cancer. The mitotic inhibitors are more natural-based derived from plants and they help in preventing enzymes from producing proteins required in cell reproduction. However, there is one huge risk that patients take when following such a treatment: these chemotherapy drugs may cause peripheral nerve damage to mention just one the health threats one may fear.

Last but not least, the corticosteroids are chemotherapy drugs based on hormones meant to treat lymphoma, leukemia and myeloma together with other diseases. Besides reducing the speed of cell growth, they also have a good impact on the way the body reacts to chemotherapy by preventing nausea, vomiting or other types of allergic reactions. These types of drugs may be used as chemotherapy ones or not, depending on the purpose they are supposed to serve.

Cancer is a disease that gains more and more of the ground we used to own in health matters especially now, in the 21st century. As a result, it is highly important that not only chemotherapy patients understand the risks and side effects of treatments but also those who are healthy and may or may not come in contact with cancer patients.

The most widely used treatment of cancer is chemotherapy either followed or preceded by surgery. Chemotherapy patients usually face a great deal of problems they have to go through. To begin with, there are the physical aspects that will break down their morale. The side effects that they will experience may eat away at their self-esteem, since they may include alopecia, constant nausea and dizziness, pains and infections of all sorts depending on the part of the body that is affected or on the type of medication that has been prescribed to follow. Some chemotherapy patients feel that they are somewhat physically impaired since they can no longer perform certain activities that have previously defined their life or that have brought smiles on their faces.

Another level of impact on chemotherapy patients is the psychological one. They need to receive the moral needed support from their family and friends and the trouble is that many choose not to share this burden with their loved ones. Because of this, they will most likely lack in support and will have to carry this burden by themselves. Not being able to talk about it as they would, not being able to share will make them feel marginalized, separated from the people in their lives and will break their morale.

On the other hand, those chemotherapy patients that initially build rapport with family and friends and choose to communicate about it and share the burden, may end up feeling guilty for spoiling family life and for being set on the top priority list, a list that is usually not considered a pleasure bringing one. They themselves may end up feeling that they have turned into a burden to their family putting strain on relationships and may choose to seclude themselves as a result of this feeling.

All these considered, it is highly obvious that family and friends of chemotherapy patients should get informed about what their beloved ones are going through and about how help can be provided in such situations. The moral strength of chemotherapy patients can be kept above surface level or increased only by psychologists and people who honestly display affection and interest in helping.

• Breast chemotherapy refers to the treatment applied to patients who suffer from breast cancer. Its purpose is to kill or to reduce in size the tumor consisting of cells that multiply very quickly compared to the normal rate of multiplication of normal cells. Breast chemotherapy can be of very many kinds depending on the combination of drugs that the doctor has selected for you.

• That is why it is highly important that patients and their family ask for clarifications from their doctors in case they haven’t understood how it all works and that they also know what side effects may be expected as a result of the medication.

• Breast chemotherapy is administered either orally or intravenously and it is usually given in cycles. The drug reaches in the blood and then travels throughout the entire body to locate and attack the sick cells meant to be destroyed. Even though breast chemotherapy is directed at breast cancer, the drugs that are recommended as treatment may act on whatever other unhealthy cells that may have already developed somewhere else than the breast. From this perspective doctors call breast chemotherapy a systemic form of treatment precisely because it may act all throughout the patient’s organism.

• Breast chemotherapy may be recommended after lumpectomy or mastectomy and in this case it is known as adjuvant treatment. The patients undergo this type of treatment only when doctors are certain from analysis that cancer has not yet spread to any other parts of the body but the breast.

• Another case when breast chemotherapy becomes necessary is when cancer has spread from the lymph nodes or breast to other parts of the body. This particular spread is known as metastatic breast cancer and women rarely have this form at the time of the diagnosis.

• Whichever of the breast chemotherapy treatments you are to receive it is important to know how you can figure out if it has any effect. This does not mean however that it is mandatory for you to experience side effects or otherwise your treatment is inefficient. This would be the wrong approach to it all. Adjuvant breast chemotherapy may have no side effects but it has always proved to be very helpful as it impedes unhealthy cells from spreading or redeveloping in your body.

• All in all, breast chemotherapy is no easy treatment. That is why our world today fights strongly against breast cancer trying to teach women how to avoid it and how to manage or identify it in its early stages when it can be treated.

• Melanoma is a type of cancer that affects the skin and is recognized by the dark spots that appear on the dermis. In order to treat melanoma, diagnostic tests must first be completed and then the cancer team will be able to recommend one or maybe more treatment options.

• Melanoma chemotherapy is one of the possibilities here. Anyway, patients should consider these treatment variants carefully, without rushing into one of them. First of all, patients ought to understand everything about the treatments. It is obvious that the choice of the procedure depends on the thickness of the primary tumor and the stage of the disease mainly.

• Among the treatments for melanoma there are options like surgery and chemotherapy. There are different choices in as far as surgery is concerned, depending on where and how advanced the melanoma is. Thus doctors might consider re-excision, amputation or lymph node dissection. If melanoma has spread from the skin to distant organs, then surgery will not be a curable option to use. Therefore, melanoma chemotherapy might be the solution. Systemic chemotherapy that is normally involved in the procedure uses injectable anticancer drugs.

• These are usually injected into a vein or taken orally. Melanoma chemotherapy drugs travel through the bloodstream to all parts of the body. They attack cancer cells which have already spread beyond the skin to lymph nodes or other organs. The drugs kill cancer cells but, unfortunately they also destroy some normal cells as well. Among these normal cells that can be killed are blood-producing cells of the bone marrow, cells that line the gastrointestinal tract and cells of hair follicles. As a result, patients will go through temporary side effects like nausea and vomiting, mouth sores, loss of appetite and loss of hair.

• Melanoma chemotherapy drugs include temozolomide, cisplatin, vinblastine, DTIC, BCNU and tamoxifen. DTIC can be used alone or with other chemotherapy drugs like BCNU and cisplatin. The above three combined with tamoxifen, which is a hormonal therapy drug commonly used in treating breast cancer, bear the name Dartmouth Regimen. Then there is another combination of DTIC, cisplatin and vinblastine to use against melanoma. Temozolomide is a newer medicine, whose mode of function is similar to that of DTIC, except that it is used in the form of a pill.

• Since melanoma chemotherapy drugs kill normal blood cells as well, patients might experience low blood cell counts and this can lead to bleeding or bruising after even minor cuts or injuries; excessive tiredness (frequently because of low red blood cell counts but also because of chemotherapy itself) and an increased chance of infection (because of white blood cell shortage).

• Chemotherapy hair loss is one of the numerous effects of this cancer treatment. What is the reason why hair loss occurs during chemotherapy? Well, the drugs used in this type of cancer treatment are very strong, therefore very efficient in attacking the rapidly developing cancer cells. These medicines also attack other cells in the body that have a rapid growth; among these, the cells in the hair roots, as well. The effects of chemotherapy on hair are not limited only to the scalp as the procedure affects the hair on the body, too. Unfortunately, eyelashes, eyebrows, armpit and pubic hair and other body hair may also fall out.

• There is a wide variety of drugs that are used in chemotherapy. Among these, obviously some are more likely to cause chemotherapy hair loss than others. The difference in chemotherapy drug doses is another aspect to consider when hair loss is under discussion, as hair loss ranges from thinning to complete baldness. Thus, discussing the medication that will be prescribed with the doctor and nurse is very important as they are the specialists able to inform the patient on what to expect from chemotherapy.

• Hair usually starts falling out after 10–14 days from the beginning of the treatment. It may fall out quite fast, either in clumps or gradually. Hair loss usually continues throughout the treatment and even one month after it. Half of the hair can fall out before this is noticed by people around. Luckily, in most cases, chemotherapy hair loss is a temporary effect. Hair can be expected to grow again within six months to one year from the end of the procedure. Although the regrowth of the hair occurs in most of the cases, the new hair could be of a different texture and shade temporarily.

• It usually takes about four to six weeks for the hair to recover from chemotherapy, and generally, the hair grows at a rate of about a quarter inch each month. When the hair starts growing back again, it might be a little different from the hair that was lost because of therapy. As mentioned before, chemotherapy hair loss leads to new texture or color temporarily. The changes will stop and the hair will become what it used to be before the treatment the moment the cells that control the hair pigment begin working again. Unfortunately, chemotherapy hair loss cannot be prevented as there is no treatment which will guarantee that the hair will not fall out.

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