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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 treatments 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. When choosing one from the several types of chemotherapy, the doctor takes into account the location of the tumor, its size, the stage of the disease and the health condition of the patient.

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 mentioned above may include tens of types of medication out of which the doctor should select the appropriate ones.

Out of 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 rest of 30 may not respond at all to the treatment or may have the minimally expected results which are not satisfactory from a medical point of view. Other types of chemotherapy will be administered immediately if an individual fails to respond to one of them.

All in all, the application and choice of types of chemotherapy are tricky. Doctors need to constantly test and monitor their patients so as 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 carries lots of emotional burdens because someones life may depend only on the doctors decision.

Filed Under: Chemotherapy

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