Types of Chemotherapy

Do you realize how painful it is to watch someone dear to you ravished by the fight with cancer? The perception we have over tumor behavior and chemotherapy approaches influences our way of perceiving this cruel reality. All sorts of remedies and therapeutic approaches are available, but in general lines, it is all reduced to types of chemotherapy.

Lots of solutions are possible starting from the treatment diversity, but each and every one has its challenges. Based on a certain protocol that also involves decision making as to when, how long, how often and under what circumstances the treatment should be applied, the doctor will also choose from the potential types of chemotherapy that which is mostly indicated for a particular case.

The list with the types of chemotherapy drugs is pretty long and it might turn out a bit confusing for those that have never come into contact with chemo until now. It includes antineoplastics, topoisomerase inhibitors, anti-tumor antibiotics, alkylating agents, alkaloid drugs and so on. Each of the categories specified above may include dozens of types of medication out of which the doctor should select the appropriate ones.

From the many types of chemotherapy treatments the doctors determine the suitable one starting from a disease protocol specific to every patient in particular that mentions his/her reaction to the treatment. These response rates are established based on research that has been done so far analyzing the treatments that have been applied and their results. Statistically speaking if the response rate of a group of patients is 70% during the treatment for a certain drug, it means that only seventy subjects have registered positive results under the action of a particular medication.

The response rate may have been minimum or non-existent in the remaining thirty patients. In that case the doctor has to act fast and direct the patient to another of the many types of chemotherapy that might have a better effect.

To sum it up, the application and choice of types of chemotherapy remain tricky. Doctors should constantly test and monitor their patients in order to make the right decisions at crucial moments in the evolution of the disease. This line of work involves a great deal of responsibility and brings about a significant emotional burden when one’s life depends on a professional decision.

Filed Under: Chemotherapy