Chemotherapy is Big Money – For Doctor and Patient
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Chemotherapy, in its most general sense, refers to treatment of disease by chemicals that kill cells, specifically those of micro-organisms or cancer. Chemotherapy works by destroying cancer cells; unfortunately, it cannot tell the difference between a cancer cell and some healthy cells.
Chemotherapy may be given in many ways. It can be administered through a vein, injected into a body cavity, or delivered orally in the form of a pill, depending on which drug is used. Chemotherapy is sometimes used along with other cancer treatments, such as radiation therapy, surgery, or biological therapy (the use of substances to boost the body’s immune system while fighting cancer).
Chemotherapy was formed from mustard gases, which was in use as chemical- arms during the 1st World-War. Chemotherapy for the treatment of cancer began in the 1940s with the use of nitrogen mustard.
When cancer treatment includes chemotherapy, patients have many questions. More than half of all people diagnosed with cancer receive chemotherapy. Chemo works by destroying cancer cells; unfortunately, it cannot tell the difference between a cancer cell and some healthy cells. So chemotherapy eliminates not only the fast-growing cancer cells but also other fast-growing cells in your body, including, hair and blood cells.
One of the most destructive things about chemo is how it weakens the immune system. The immune system is the body’s only defense against disease. Since chemo has a detrimental effect on the immune may chemo patients contract other diseases not associated with cancer like pneumonia, bowel diseases, allergies and may create many immunodeficiency disorders.
Your course of therapy will depend on the cancer type, the chemotherapy drugs used, the treatment goal and how your body responds. Adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy are often given following surgery for many types of cancer, including colon cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and some gynaecological cancers. Over time, cancer cells become more resistant to chemotherapy treatments.
Patients who are better prepared tend to have fewer side effects and a higher emotional ability to handle the chemotherapy treatments. Patients receiving chemotherapy are more likely to get infections. Under certain circumstances, your doctor may decide your body is too weak to receive chemotherapy. You may have breaks between treatments so that your body has a chance to build new healthy cells.
The side effects of chemotherapy come about because cancer cells aren’t the only rapidly dividing cells in your body. Radiation therapy directs high-energy X-rays at a person’s body to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Radiation therapy also attacks quickly growing cells in your body, but unlike chemotherapy, it affects only the specific area where treatment is concentrated. Biological therapy, also called immunotherapy, consists of treatment with substances that boost the body’s own immune system against cancer.
Receiving chemo during childhood also may place some kids at risk for delayed growth and cognitive development, depending on the child’s age, the type of drug used, the dosage, and whether chemotherapy was used in addition to radiation therapy. People who receive radiation therapy before having chemotherapy may notice that involved skin may turn red, blister, and peel once chemo begins. When a cancer has been removed by surgery or treated with radiation therapy, chemotherapy may be used to keep the cancer from coming back (adjuvant therapy).
Given after surgery or radiation, the goal of adjuvant therapy is to eliminate any cancer cells that might linger in your body after earlier treatments. The combination of radiation and chemotherapy can further increase your risk of heart damage.
Chemotherapy is usually administered for approximately 6-12 months or until a patient achieves a plateau response or stable disease, especially if the therapy is well tolerated. Chemotherapy can be frightening to think about. It may cause short term (acute), long term (chronic), and permanent side effects, some of which may be severe.
Chemotherapy can have many unpleasant side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, hair loss, mouth sores, Anemia (decreased numbers of red blood cells; may cause fatigue, dizziness, and shortness of breath) Leukopenia (decreased numbers of white blood cells; may lower resistance to infection), Thrombocytopenia (decreased numbers of platelets; may lead to easy bleeding or bruising), gastrointestinal symptoms, and even heart disease.
There are other options to chemotherapy that are successful in treating cancer but perhaps more important, there are steps we can take to prevent cancer and to avoid the horrible effects of chemo and radiation.
Watch the video related
6 yr old having port accessed for chemotherapy (vincristine). Caution: The video shows the needle being inserted into the port and some blood being drawn. Lucas was diagnosed with a brain tumour in April 2007. He had it resected, underwent 30 rounds of radiation, and is undergoing chemotherapy. He is in his 5th round in this video. You can read more about Lucas’ story at mommysms.spaces.live.com.
Help answer the question
How do chemotherapy drugs interact chemically with cancer cells to get rid of the cancerous cells?
I have to give a chemistry project tomorrow in class and I need to have a basic understanding of what goes on chemically between chemotherapy drugs and the cancerous cells. Like what element interacts with what and how the chemo drugs stop the cancer cells from replicating. If anyone even has a most basic chemical explanation as to what occurs I would really appreciate it.
chemotherapy
18 Comments
August 31st, 2009 at 5:22 pm
August 31st, 2009 at 5:22 pm
It varies a lot on the patient and the dosage of chemotherapy. Usually its around the one month mark (3-4 weeks), but sometimes as early as 1-2 weeks. And then some people don't lose any hair at all.
Cancer runs really high in my family. My grandfather didn't lose any hair when he had lung cancer (although he died from the cancer), nor did my mother when she had thyroid cancer, and nor my father when he had non-hodgkin's lyphoma cancer.
Haha. Wow both grandparents on my mom's side, my mom, and my father have had cancer. Just realized that…
Anyway, god bless your girlfriend! When she does start to lose hair, tell her she's gorgeous everyday because she may lose self confidence, I've seen a lot of people go through that.
-Catherine
August 31st, 2009 at 7:11 pm
The idea that cancer feeds off of sugar is based on a misconception of cancer biology and an incomplete understanding of how PET scans work.
When you have a PET scan done you quit eating any sugar or carbs prior to the test because most tumors consume more glucose than normal body organs. Tumors have an increased blood supply and this increased vascular supply helps feed the glucose into the tumor. Having no excess glucose in the bloodstream makes the tumors light up much better on PET scans.
All aspects of metabolism in the human body are dependent on glucose for fuel. You can not stop consuming enough glucose to make any difference in the growth of a tumor because the tumor always gets first dibs on any glucose that becomes available. In other words, you would starve to death before your reducing your glucose intake would have any affect on the growth of the tumor.
Your father could have a PET scan and this would tell if the tumor is still active or not. If your dad has medicare for his insurance you should know that medicare does not like to pay for PET scans but if they are medically necessary and he has his Dr's support it is possible to get a PET scan approved by and paid for by medicare.
all the best to you both
August 31st, 2009 at 11:02 pm
The reason that you can't find any information on that is because it is a fabrication. My good friend has been doing Chemo for about 8 months and has 2 cats…..all is well.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:34 pm
He’s a VERY strong kid Keep fighting kid!
You’re an inspiration to all.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:41 pm
ughh vincristine…not fun medicine! I had about 2 weeks worth of nerve problems in my hands
September 1st, 2009 at 12:45 am
If you want a really general overview with how each type of chemotherapeutic agent works, wikipedia is the best place:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemotherapy
Elementally speaking, a small number of elements are used to form complexes, which can bind to DNA causing apoptosis. The best example of this is cisplatin, which is platinum based.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisplatin
The most basic explanation is that the majority of chemotherapy drugs act against cancer cells by inhibiting mitosis. There are many different ways to act against mitosis, such as inhibiting microtubule growth, inhibiting topoisomerases (enzymes which allows the compacting of DNA via formation of coils).
good luck with your project!
September 1st, 2009 at 1:28 am
If you study the figures, you'll find plenty of opinions on both sides. The ACS claims a 44% percent success rate in treating all cancers with chemotherapy, but their figures are based on five year survival rates.
Ten year survival rates for cancer treated with chemotherapy are less than ten percent.
That is a lower survival rate than untreated cancers.
The sad fact of the matter is that cancer is a billion dollar industry, and there are many people with great influence, who have a vested interest in keeping cancer alive.
The key to their profit has always been the patenting of pharmaceutical drugs and treatments of the symptoms, and not the cause. They claim not to understand the cause of cancer, and yet fervently deny any cure exists, and if you suggest otherwise, they claim you are a quack. For almost a hundred years, doctors have come forward with effective treatments for all kinds of cancer, and been suppressed; Because natural remedies cannot be patented, and hence reap no profit for the pharmaceutical industry.
Cancer is caused by imbalance and toxicity in the system.
It is brought on by elements in our air and water, but primarily our food. The majority of food in America today is toxic, and can cause a wide variety of diseases, from cancer, to diabetes, to heart problems and immune dysfunction.
Chemotherapy does nothing to treat this cause. In fact, it introduces more toxins into they system and cripples the immune system.
Don't take my word for it, do your research online. Google "chemotherapy survival rates"
Then, if you're as unsatisfied with western treatments as I am, google these:
Tai Chi
QiGong
Gerson
Hoxsey
Modern medicine will tell you this is all quackery…
From atop the growing pile of chemotherapy treated and radiated corpses, 56 million annually.
Ask yourself if you would trust the same men who push pills on you during the nightly news, between commercials for greasy fast food burgers and shiny American cars made in Mexico, or are they just in it for the money?
The answer might save your friend's life.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:22 pm
I was 3 when I had cancer and had a Hickman line (type of port) as well, accessing it is very simple and really no big deal as you feel nothing. I was also on vincrisitne and my name is Lucas as well. Hope he is doing well.
September 1st, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Maybe you’ll feel a little bit unwell or you get diarrhoe or in bad cases emesis, so reduce the dosis, it’s because you raise up to fast. The symptomes are not produced by NaClO2, it’s because the Jarisch-Herxheimer-Reaction (toxine released by bacteria and reaction on body).
There are people that say it’s toxic or something, but 1.think at paracelsus and 2.the chemotherapy-medicaments are more toxic than NaClO2.NaClO2 is a high potential desinfectant.
September 1st, 2009 at 8:17 pm
NaClO2 destroys viruses, bacteria, funghi, parasits and cancer, maybe also HIV.
It destroys only bacteria with pH under 7.0, these bacterias are mostly pathogenic, so you wont get these adverse effects like on antibiotics.
I don’t tell lies, why should I?
Please try it, I want to help.
Pharmaconcerns maybe helps with new medicine, but they earn so much money with cancer medicaments and let people die in their misere.
Pharma affiliated groups = mafia
September 2nd, 2009 at 6:42 am
Chemotherapy works by destroying cancer cells; unfortunately, it cannot tell the difference between a cancer cell and some healthy cells. So chemotherapy eliminates not only the fast-growing cancer cells but also other fast-growing cells in your body, including, hair and blood cells.
Some cancer cells grow slowly while others grow rapidly. As a result, different types of chemotherapy drugs target the growth patterns of specific types of cancer cells. Each drug has a different way of working and is effective at a specific time in the life cycle of the cell it targets.
So, the chemicals are designed to go after specific cells that have a particular metabolic rate.
Chemotherapy has NOT been very effective and the 5 year survival rate is very poor. It is expensive; a cancer patient is worth about $300,000 to the medical community.
In 1972, according to the American Cancer Societies own figures, 33% of cancers had a five year survival rate. We should also point out that at that same time 33% of cancers went away on their own. Today, according to the ACS, the five year survival rate for cancer has risen to 40%. However, what they do not tell you is that:
1.The statistics are invalid because they combine data of both local and metastasized cancers; and that the comparisons are not randomized [Ulrich Abel, Advanced Epithelial Cancer", 1990 (no longer in print) ]
2.Cancers not factored into the original statistics are now factored in, such as skin cancers, many of which are not fatal and that the statistics are purposely inflated by including people with benign cancers.
3.Technology has helped us to find cancers earlier, thus the survival time from diagnosis to eventual death has lengthened.
4.They are now including in their stats non deadly skin cancers.
By shrinking tumors, chemotherapy encourages stronger cancer cells to grow and multiply and become chemo resistant. Then there are the new cancers caused by chemotherapy, or secondary cancers. This quaint side effect is often overlooked in the lists of side effects in a drug's accompanying literature, though you can find this information quite easily at the National Cancer Institute. We pride ourselves in America for being technologically advanced and that our technology is rooted in a foundation of good science.
Wrong.
When it comes to medicine, little at all is based upon science. Again we shall point to the Office of Technological Assessment’s paper: Assessing the Efficacy and Safety of Medical Technologies in which we are told that fewer than 20% of all medical procedures have been tested, and that of those tested, half were tested badly.
Medicine in America is not about healing.
Most telling, according to Ralph Moss in his book Questioning Chemotherapy, is that in a good number of surveys, chemotherapists have responded that they would neither recommend chemotherapy for their families nor would they use it themselves. In an unpublished cohort study in which it was revealed that only 9% of oncologists took chemotherapy for their cancers.
"Most cancer patients in this country die of chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy does not eliminate breast, colon, or lung cancers. This fact has been documented for over a decade, yet doctors still use chemotherapy for these tumors,” Allen Levin, MD UCSF The Healing of Cancer.
Additionally, Irwin Bross, a biostatistician for the National Cancer Institute, discovered that many cancers that are benign (though thought to be malignant) and will not metastasize until they are hit with chemotherapy. In other words, he's found that many people who've been diagnosed with metastatic cancer did not have metastatic cancer until they got their chemotherapy.
For many cancers, chemotherapy just does not improve your survival rate. Some of these are colorectal, gastric, pancreatic, bladder, breast, ovarian, cervical and corpus uteri, head and neck. Knowing this, oncologists still recommend a regimen of chemotherapy, why?
The answer you will get from oncologists that are honest is this: “We give it to patients so they won't give up hope and fall into the hands of quacks.” Quacks? Implicit in the definition of quackery is the sale of worthless or dangerous nostrums for profit. Who exactly are the quacks? Just because someone is wearing a white smock, has a title, and works in a nice air conditioned office, does NOT take away what he is. Con men don't look like crooks or they would never get anyone to buy into what they are selling. Looking credible does NOT mean they are.
Dr Ulrich Abel, who poured over thousands and thousands of cancer studies, published his shocking report in 1990 stating quite succinctly that chemotherapy has done nothing for 80% of all cancers; that 80% of chemotherapy administered was absolutely worthless.
To give a fair and accurate assessment of chemotherapy in your report, you should also tell people how it is NOT very effective and only a smal
September 2nd, 2009 at 12:15 am
You give at every drop NaClO2 (max conc.) 5 drops citric acid (solved in water, this is the activator). Then you allow to stand this (closed) for 3 to 5 min. This alloy will dye yellow, then you give a half or a glas water in it and drink it. You start with a drop a day, then you raise it up at any time (so you put 2 drops NaClO2 in it and 10 drops citric acid), and later more till you come to 10 drops and you use this ten drops a weak long.
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:22 am
that is scary..what a strong child..
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:35 pm
It’s possible, that NaClO2 destroys cancer, it’s less aggressive than chemotherapia.
Read something about NaClO2 and test it, if you do it, you’ll see, that this one works.
But pharmaconcerns doesn’t want it, the reason is money, so they watch how the people die by cancer and other diseases.
It’s not a joke, try it really, I think it’ll help. What’s the problem to try it? When you’re fatally ill, why not?
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:54 pm
=[ aw
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:40 am
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Most clinical trials start chemotherapy within 42-60 days; some older studies went out as far as 84 days. The importance of using a clinical trial as a standard measure is that the experts are the ones coming up with these criteria.
I typically start 3-4 weeks, depending on patient status and disease characteristics, but no problem waiting couple more weeks if needed. I personally don't like going beyond 6 weeks.
God bless, best wishes