News tagged with chemotherapy
Current trend is to preserve pregnancy in patients diagnosed with cervical or ovarian cancer
The first paper in The Lancet Series on cancer in pregnancy explores the issues around gynaecological cancers, with cervical and ovarian being the most common. The current trend is to preserve pregnancy wherever possible. The fi ...
Feb 09, 2012 |
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Study says children of women exposed to chemotherapy in pregnancy develop as well as other children
A study published Online First by The Lancet Oncology, and linked to The Lancet Series on cancer in pregnancy, shows that children of women exposed to chemotherapy while pregnant develop as well as children in the genera ...
Feb 09, 2012 |
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Surgery and chemotherapy are possible for pregnant women with breast cancer
Breast cancer in pregnant women is as common as in non-pregnant women of the same age, with no evidence to suggest pregnancy increases the risk of such cancer. In the majority of cases, pregnant women can have their breast ...
Feb 09, 2012 |
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Complications of blood cancers make termination advisable at early stages of pregnancy
Lymphoma is the fourth most common cancer in pregnancy, affecting one in 6000 pregnancies. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, acute leukaemia, and other blood cancers, while also rare, can also occur in pregnancy. The need for urgent ...
Feb 09, 2012 |
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Short fasting cycles work as well as chemotherapy in mice
Man may not live by bread alone, but cancer in animals appears less resilient, judging by a study that found chemotherapy drugs work better when combined with cycles of short, severe fasting.
Feb 08, 2012 |
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A silver bullet to beat cancer?
The internet is awash with stories of how silver can be used to treat cancer. Now, lab tests have shown that it is as effective as the leading chemotherapy drug - and may have fewer side-effects.
Feb 02, 2012 |
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Cancer drugs shown to cause mutations in mice offspring
(Medical Xpress) -- For many years, most of the studies done to see what effects cancer treatment has on the offspring of survivors, has involved radiation. This is because radiation is known to cause mutations in cells. ...
Jan 31, 2012 |
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Stress-induced genomic instability facilitates rapid cellular adaption in yeast
Cells trying to keep pace with constantly changing environmental conditions need to strike a fine balance between maintaining their genomic integrity and allowing enough genetic flexibility to adapt to inhospitable conditions. ...
Jan 29, 2012 |
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Standard treatments for head and neck cancer less effective in HIV-positive patients
Radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy is less effective for patients with HIV when compared to the recurrence and overall survival rates in patients who do not have HIV, according to a study presented at the Multidisciplinary ...
Jan 26, 2012 |
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Oral temperature changes in head and neck cancer patients predicts side effect severity
Slight temperature increases of the oral mucus membranes early in a head and neck cancer patient's chemotherapy and radiation therapy (chemoradiotherapy) treatment is a predictor of severe mucositis later in treatment, according ...
Jan 26, 2012 |
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Radiation plus chemotherapy provides long-term positive results for head and neck cancer patients
A select subgroup of advanced head and neck cancer patients treated with radiation therapy plus the chemotherapy drug cisplatin had more positive outcomes than patients treated with radiation therapy alone and continued to ...
Jan 26, 2012 |
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'DIMming' cancer growth -- STAT: Diindolylmethane suppresses ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer is a major cause of death worldwide. Approximately 25,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year and 15,000 women will die from it in the United States alone. The novel anti-cancer drug diindolylmethane ...
Jan 26, 2012 |
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Aiding cancer therapy by mathematically modeling tumor-immune interactions
Cancer is one of the five leading causes of death. And yet, despite decades of research, there is no standardized first-line treatment for most cancers. In addition, disappointing results from predominant second-line treatments ...
Jan 25, 2012 |
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Study showed oxaliplatin improved colon cancer patient survival
Stage III colon cancer patients in the general population who receive adjuvant treatment for the disease have an improved rate of survival when oxaliplatin is added to 5-fluorouracil (5FU), according to a study published ...
Jan 20, 2012 |
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UH Case Medical Center offers new therapy for gynecologic cancer patients
Patients with gynecologic cancer have new hope in a novel technology now offered at the Seidman Cancer Center at University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center. A team of cancer specialists, led by Robert DeBernardo, MD, is ...
Jan 20, 2012 |
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Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy, in its most general sense, refers to treatment of disease by chemicals that kill cells, both good and bad, but specifically those of micro-organisms or cancerous tumours. In popular usage, it refers to antineoplastic drugs used to treat cancer or the combination of these drugs into a cytotoxic standardized treatment regimen. In its non-oncological use, the term may also refer to antibiotics (antibacterial chemotherapy). In that sense, the first modern chemotherapeutic agent was Paul Ehrlich's arsphenamine, an arsenic compound discovered in 1909 and used to treat syphilis. This was later followed by sulfonamides discovered by Domagk and penicillin discovered by Alexander Fleming.
Most commonly, chemotherapy acts by killing cells that divide rapidly, one of the main properties of cancer cells. This means that it also harms cells that divide rapidly under normal circumstances: cells in the bone marrow, digestive tract and hair follicles; this results in the most common side effects of chemotherapy—myelosuppression (decreased production of blood cells), mucositis (inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract) and alopecia (hair loss).
Other uses of cytostatic chemotherapy agents (including the ones mentioned below) are the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis and the suppression of transplant rejections (see immunosuppression and DMARDs). Newer anticancer drugs act directly against abnormal proteins in cancer cells; this is termed targeted therapy.
For more information about Chemotherapy, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
