What Does Chemotherapy Involve?

As is known by most people generally, chemotherapy is the treatment used to demolish cancer cells. It is used as a treatment to prevent cancer cells from dividing and growing. In this article we are going to discuss what the process of chemotherapy entails and what the goals are. For anyone who so suffering from cancer or knows someone else with the disease, this is good information to have. Chemotherapy treatment by far is considered to be the most viable and successful treatment for cancer.

When it comes to cancer treatment, it is the process of chemotherapy that is normally used. Cytotoxin medicine used in the treatment prevents the cancer cells from dividing themselves and growing further.

There are five possible goals that are targeted to be achieved via chemotherapy. These are:

• -Total remission, in which case the patient is cured completely.
• -Combining chemotherapy with other therapies like radiotherapy in order to make them more effective.
• -In some cases, once the cancerous tumor is removed, chemotherapy is used to prevent a recurrence.
• -In the cases of advanced cancer that cannot be cured, it’s used to slow down the progression.
• -To relieve symptoms in patients with advanced cancer.

The process

Simply put, through the use of chemotherapy, the cancer cells that are otherwise on a rampage and controlled and destroyed so that they don’t grow so rapidly. The chemo drugs interfere with the growth of the cancer cells and hamper their ability to reproduce.

Patients undergoing chemotherapy can receive the medication in two forms;

-Monotherapy where only one drug is given; and
-Combination therapy where more than one drug is given.

This is decided based on what type of cancer it is and what stage it has reached. In addition to this, depending on what kind the cancer is chemotherapy can either be administered orally via pills or intravenously where the drug is fed directly into the veins. This can be done via an injection or through a drip. Usually the duration of chemotherapy depends upon how the patient’s body is responding and how quickly the cancer cells can be destroyed.

During the process of chemotherapy and even before it starts, it is extremely important to test the patients blood count as the treatment actually reduces the number of red as well as white blood cells in the body including platelets.

When it comes to delivering the medication intravenously, there are a few options available:

-Through the cannula: This is a thin tube that is inserted into the vein via the skin at the back of the hand or via the lower arm.

-Via a drip: In this the medicine is diluted and put in a bag and slowly injected into the body through a vein.

-By using a central line: In this case a long, thin, flexible plastic line is used which goes into the central blood vessel in the chest, close to the heart.

-Via a peripherally inserted central catheter line (PICC): Here a long, thin, flexible tube is inserted into a peripheral vein in the upper arm. Then this goes into a large vein in the chest near the heart. This is like the central line but the entry point is different.

There are a number of super-specialty and multi-specialty hospitals in Delhi and NCR like Fortis Memorial Research Institute in Gurgaon and Max hospital that have all the possible facilities for chemotherapy.

For anyone who needs the treatment, it is recommended to consult a good doctor and then based on the diagnosis start the treatment as soon as possible for a speedy recovery.

Author Bio: In these years since I have graduated, I Simi Ahuja, have been working with the institutions providing health-care & medical treatments and have gathered tons of information about the doctors, hospitals and related things in Delhi-NCR. In this article, she has shared information about the chemotherapy treatment. To know about the various hospitals in Delhi NCR where chemotherapy treatment is provided, you can can visit Credihealth.com.