Chemotherapy Toxicity

By Kate Savage

Chemotherapy is very effective and standard treatment for cancer patients. Mostly, the chemotherapy drugs act on those cells that move through their respective cell cycle including the normal cells from hair follicles, bone marrow, gastrointestinal lining, ovaries, testicles and cancer cells. It helps to determine the side effects occurred by chemotherapy such as hair loss, diarrhea, mouth sores and low blood counts.

Most of patients experience chemotherapy toxicity because it's heavily protein bound drugs.
Chemotherapy drugs may affect normal cells or their processes that include synthesis of DNA and RNA, cellular division and many other chemical reactions within the cell. There are some complementary medicines that can lighten these side effects without compromising the benefit. You can move towards acupuncture, nutritional, massage and Reiki therapy.

Patients having chemotherapy of heavily protein bound drugs such as celecoxib, amlodipine and omeprazole along with chemotherapy drugs may experience hematologic side effects such as low count in white blood cells. Patients may experience nonhematologic unpleasant effects from chemotherapy such as diarrhea and fatigue by taking the drugs that reduce cytochrome P450 enzyme such as ketoconazable and amiodarone.

Other factors may influence chemo-toxicity that include higher body mass index, tumor stage, lower mean albumin and higher serum aspirate aminotransferase before starting chemotherapy. Adjuvant radiation and chemotherapy give excellent benefit in breast cancer. However, both can damage normal tissues in way and affect the quality of life. This effect on normal cells causes due to apoptosis of normal cells.

Ectopic over expression of the anti- apoptotic molecule Bcl-2 may slow down the chemotherapy and radiation induced apoptosis of normal cells and helps to reduce the toxicity of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Chemotherapy drugs may also cause skin toxicity. There are skin rashes such as Alopecia that is hair loss, acral erythema, recall reactions, skin necrosis, photosensitivity, acneiform reutions, nail changes, neutrophilic eccrine hidradenitis, mucositis, hyperpigmentation, sclerotic dermal reactions, vascular injury, xerosis and other reactions.

Acral erythema is also known as palmoplantar erythrodysesthesia or hand foot syndrome. It is noticeable with redness of the skin of the palm and soles. This system may come first by sensation of the skin and gives severe pain that may affect on daily activities.

The Chemotherapy toxicity cause symptoms like cardiodepression, central neurotoxicity and myelosuppression that can make the treatment complex and to know more about chemotherapy click here.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kate_Savage