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Home » Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is used for treating diseases, particularly cancer, by making use of chemical substances. According to modern-day use, chemotherapy refers to cytotoxic drugs that are used for cancer treatment or the combination of these drugs is used into a standardized treatment regimen. The use of chemotherapy is non-oncological in nature. Chemotherapy can also refer to antibiotics, like antibacterial chemotherapy. The first modern chemotherapeutic agent, known as Paul Ehrlich’s arsphenamine, was an arsenic compound that was discovered in the year 1909 and was used for treating syphilis. This next chemotherapeutic agent was sulfonamides discovered by Domagk, and then the discovery of penicillin by Fleming.
Amongst the various uses of chemotherapy, cytostatic chemotherapy agents are used for treating autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, and to suppress transplant rejections.

Types of Chemotherapy
The different types of chemotherapeutic drugs can be mainly divided into: antimetabolites, alkylating agents, plant alkaloids, anthracyclines, topoisomerase inhibitors, and other types of anti-tumor agents. All these chemotherapeutic drugs affect DNA synthesis or cell division. There are also some new types of chemotherapeutic agents that don’t interfere with DNA directly. There are some other chemotherapeutic drugs that can be used for modulating the behavior of the tumor cell without directly attacking those cells. Hormone treatments come under this category of adjuvant therapies.

Treatment Schemes of Chemotherapy
There are numerous strategies in the administration of chemotherapeutic drugs that are used nowadays. Chemotherapy can be given along with a curative intent, or for palliating symptoms, or to prolong the life of the patient. In case of combined modality chemotherapy, drugs are used with other types of cancer treatments, like surgery or radiation. Most cancers, nowadays, are treated in this combined way. Another similar practice that treats a patient along with different drugs simultaneously is termed as combination chemotherapy. The drugs vary in their side effects and mechanism. The biggest advantage of chemotherapy is that it minimizes the chances of resistance that develops to any one agent.

In adjuvant or post-operation chemotherapy, the drugs can be used when there is little evidence that cancer is still present and involves the risk of recurrence. This chemotherapy helps in reducing the chances of resistance developing if there is a development of the tumor. In case of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, initial chemotherapy is used for the purpose of primary tumor shrinking.

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