When going into details, the chemotherapy protocol involves all the case circumstances, from the pathology of the disease to the location of the tumor and its stage of evolution. The protocol ought to further specify indications and contraindications, it should pinpoint all the situations in which this specific chemotherapy protocol should be allowed or forbidden and it ought to make references to specialized literature for whatever sort of clarifications may be needed throughout the treatment.

Another important part of the chemotherapy protocol is to include information and clear description of the drugs that the patient will take. Drug information will have to refer here to the dosage which is usually established depending on the patients body weight, surface, the appropriate concentration to be found in the blood, and so on. Other details in the chemotherapy protocol include info on cyclical administration and the time interval between doses. Moreover, the chemotherapy protocol should specify the administration method, that is, the route of administration, as doctors call it (oral, intravenous, abdominal, etc). In some cases adjuvant treatment may be necessary which represents another piece of information that has to be specified in the chemotherapy protocol together with possible precautions and measures.

Last but not least, the chemotherapy protocol should talk about the cycles of the treatment. Such details cover the intervals that separate different cures as well as the concentration variation in the medication. The protocol should further determine how many cycles are necessary, whether the toxicity of the drugs represents a health risk, the level of recovery after every cycle of the treatment and so on.

The most widely used treatment of cancer is chemotherapy either followed or preceded by surgery. Chemotherapy patients usually have to deal with overwhelming physical and psychological stress. One’s morale can easily break down because of the physical sufferance chemotherapy brings. Self-esteem can hardly be maintained when facing extreme adverse reactions, since they may hair loss, all sorts of infections because of a weak immune system, dizziness and constant nausea, pains and the impossibility to lead a normal life. 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 you would, not being able to share will make you feel marginalized, separated from the people in your life and will break your morale.

On the other hand, there are other chemotherapy patients that do share their sufferance with their family, but in time, they see themselves as burdens and feel responsible for the trouble they cause, thus adding a sense of guilt to their already precarious psychological balance. Self-isolation will often be chosen as an option in such cases, but specialists indicate that it is wrong and detrimental to one’s well being to refuse support and face cancer alone.

All these considered, it is highly understandable that the friends and family members of chemotherapy patients should be informed about what their beloved ones are going through and about how help can be provided in such situations. Sometimes even professional psychological help could work miracles for the recovery and the support of chemotherapy patients. It’s an option that should not be ignored or overlooked.

There is a wide variety of drugs that are used in chemotherapy. Some of these will trigger chemotherapy hair loss more quickly than others, but some may not even cause such a side effect. 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 1014 days from the beginning of the treatment. It may happen quite fast, gradually or in clumps. Chemotherapy hair loss remains a problem throughout the entire period of the treatment and a month afterwards. Half the hair will be gone without one even noticing. Fortunately, in the majority of cases, chemotherapy hair loss represents a temporary effect. Hair can be expected to grow back 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. The changes will be a first recovery sign 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 none of the treatments available is completely free of such side effects.

Chemotherapy effects or side effects can be divided into two major groups as short and long term. Side effects of chemotherapy represent unwanted symptoms which occur as a direct result of taking a drug. It is not difficult to confuse drug side effects with symptoms of cancer. Symptoms characterize the disease in fact, while the side effects represent natural adverse reactions to a chemical intervention in the body. Anyway, various chemotherapy drugs have different short term and long term side effects; not all chemotherapy drugs lead to every side effect.

In more general terms, chemotherapy harms those cells with a faster division. Chemotherapy will thus affect the bone marrow responsible for blood cells production, the mouth, the intestines, the skin and the hair. Since hair is growing all the time, the skin is constantly renewing itself and the lining of the digestive system and the mouth have the same dynamics, then, the new cells result from a rapid and constant division occurring in these parts of the body. And, unfortunately, when cells are dividing, chemotherapy drugs attack them.

Chemotherapy effects and adverse reactions also vary from one patient to another. The intensity of the experience, and their evolution during the treatment depend on many various factors. These elements include the period during which the drug has been taken, the concentration of the drug, how the drug is administered, the patients overall health condition, as well as the combination of the chemotherapy drug with other medicines. Some chemotherapy effects are serious medical conditions which require professional help; others, although bothersome, are not necessarily damaging to the patients health. It is also relevant to discuss the effects of chemotherapy with the doctor and the contact person at the treating center where the patient is given the treatment.

Alkylating agents is a first class of chemotherapy drugs worth mentioning. These drugs are pretty damaging to the bone marrow because they damage the DNA to stop the reproduction of the cancerous cells. Lots of cancer cases get treated with this kind of chemotherapy drugs, with the mention that doses are always kept low because of the risk to develop leukemia up to ten years after the cessation of the treatment. Platinum based medication is classified together with alkylating agents because of the similarity in their action.

Antimetabolites are another distinct class of chemotherapy drugs. They are used in treating leukemia, breast tumors, ovary and intestinal cancers and their impact is not limited to the DNA but also extends to the RNA too.

The anthracyclines represent another type of chemotherapy drugs being part of the antibiotic group. Their action is directed 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. Even so, cancer patients undergo a huge risk with any chemical treatment they follow: these chemotherapy drugs could cause peripheral nerve damage to mention just one the health threats you may fear.

Last but not least, the corticosteroids are chemotherapy drugs derived from hormones and meant to treat myeloma, lymphoma and leukemia besides other diseases. In addition to decreasing the cancer cellular growth, they also have a positive 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.

In broad general terms, chemotherapy kills cells by means of chemical substances. Particularly speaking, chemotherapy is used to kill the cells of micro-organisms or cancer. Chemotherapy usually refers to antineoplastic drugs which are used to treat cancer or to the combination of these drugs into a cytotoxic standardized treatment regimen. From a non-oncological perspective, the term chemotherapy also refers to antibiotics this is known as antibacterial chemotherapy.

A chemotherapy drug, or the drug cocktail established by the doctor, functions on the principle of cellular destruction. Unfortunately, these drugs also affect/attack other healthy cells that divide rapidly. The collateral casualties produced by a chemotherapy drug are cells in the hair follicles, bone marrow and digestive tract. These results on the normal rapid-dividing cells are the side effects of chemotherapy: alopecia hair loss, myelosuppression decreased production of blood cells, and mucositis inflammation of the digestive tract.

Among the other uses of the chemotherapy drug and cytostatic chemotherapy agents there are the treatment of autoimmune diseases (multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis) and the suppression of transplant rejections. More modern cancer treatments known as targeted therapy use anti-cancer medication that attacks only the abnormal proteins in cancer cells.

Different classes of chemotherapy drug medication are available at present. Thus there are antimetabolites, alkylating agents, topoisomerase inhibitors, anthracyclines and several others. Some newer agents, like monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors, do not interfere directly with the DNA as do the above mentioned ones.

These ones target a molecular abnormality in peculiar types of cancer such as gastrointestinal stromal tumors or chronic myelogenous leukemia. Besides these, there is also the category of drugs that modulate the tumor cell behavior without directly attacking those cells. From these so-called adjuvant therapies, the hormone treatment will be commonly used.

Depending on the stage of the disease and the aim of the treatment, doctors will choose to administer one chemotherapy drug or a combination of drugs according to one or another of the existing strategies.

Cancer chemotherapy was first used in the 1940s when doctors prescribed mostly nitrogen mustards and folic acid as antagonist drugs. With the growing number of tumor cases, cancer chemotherapy has gradually turned into an industry producing an astounding amount of drugs of a huge diversity. Even though progress has marked the seven decades since the pioneer cancer treatments, the basic principles that shaped cancer chemotherapy have remained the same.

Sometimes cancer chemotherapy seems not to be efficient enough to stop the growth of cancer cells. Consequently, the combined chemotherapy regimen may not be sufficient and the doctor may recommend surgery. Not even surgery can always remove a tumor completely, particularly since the cancerous cells may grow back again. The prevention of recurrence is possible thanks to the so-called adjuvant treatment, based on powerful cancer drugs that clear the tumor away. This cancer chemotherapy adjuvant seems to have really lengthened the life of many patients suffering from colon cancer.

Chemotherapy means drugs that have various purposes and patients should learn what types of drugs they are using and what risks or side effects these drugs pose. There are plenty of categories of cancer chemotherapy drugs, and anyone interested can research on the Internet or in books. Whichever the medium of information, remember that associating the action of the drug, with the risks it brings along and with what other medicine it can be combined is utterly important before starting a certain cancer chemotherapy treatment.