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$Title{Why Use Chemotherapy for Cancer?}
$Subject{Chemotherapy Cancer cancers cancerous treat treatment treatments
medicine medicines medication medications cell cells body bodies chemical
chemicals drug drugs metastasize metastasized tumor tumors surgery surgeries
radiate radiation destroy destroyed destroying kill blood systemic advantage
advantages disadvantage disadvantages side effect effects react reaction
reacting reactions hair loss nausea vomit vomiting white count counts pulsed
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Copyright (c) 1993  Tribune Media Services, Inc.


Why Use Chemotherapy for Cancer?


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QUESTION:  The diagnosis is "cancer" and I don't suppose it makes much
difference which one, but what happens now?  What do all these treatments do,
why "chemotherapy"?  How does one choose, when your mind isn't clear, and you
have to worry about paying for your choice?  I know you don't have all the
answers, but please point me in the right direction and give me a push.  I
don't know anyone that I trust as much as I trust you.

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ANSWER:  I wish there was a simple answer to your most important question, but
even you realize there isn't.  So I will just try to make a complicated
answer as easy to understand as possible.  Chemotherapy, or treating cancer
with various medications, has been with us since the 1950's and for about 20
years developed very rapidly.  Sometime around the late 1960's researchers
began to discover that for some cases cancers could be treated by using a
combination of active medications, as many as 5 different formulas at once,
each acting upon the cancer in a different fashion, yet all working together
to destroy the wildly growing cells.
     Compared to most of the cells in our bodies, cancer cells grow at a much
faster pace.  Therefore they take in more of the chemicals found in the blood
than slower growing cells do.  And that concentrates the medications in the
abnormal cells, and hopefully, destroys them.
     When cancers develop, they often "metastasize".  That means that cells
from the original tumor break free and travel to another area of the body,
frequently far from the original tumor site.  During the initial period,
before they grow large enough to find, they remain undetectable by even the
most modern technology.  By the time they can be found, it is too late to
prevent them from spreading even further.
     Localized tumors can be removed by surgery, or destroyed by radiation.
That's why early diagnosis, before there has been time for the cells to
spread, is so important.  To destroy metastasized tumors located throughout
the body, medicine must be delivered to the new sites by the blood stream as
it flows to all of the body's organs and systems.  This type of therapy is
therefore called "systemic treatment" and while it has the advantage of
reaching all the tumor cells, there are a few disadvantages as well.  The
medication used to act on the fast growing cancer cells, will provoke unwanted
side effects on other normal tissues in the body which may also have fast
rates of growth.  Although each person may react to the medications in an
individual fashion, hair loss, nausea and vomiting, and decreased white blood
counts are frequent though not necessarily inevitable.  One of the techniques
used to overcome side effects is a pulsed course of therapy, where
chemotherapy is interrupted for a period of time to allow the body's normal
cells to regenerate and catch up a bit before the next "pulse" is
administered.
     Your type of cancer is important, just as you as an individual are
important.  Different types of cancer are treated using different medications,
and in different combinations.  Different people experience different
reactions, and constant checking and revising the therapy is essential, for
side effects can be reduced and the effectiveness of the medication
increased.  The physicians who treat you will try to determine the combination
that provides you with the greatest benefit and the least amount of distress.
And while there is no simple answer, no one formula, there is but a single
direction and that is . . . forward.  Fight your disease with every weapon at
your command, your determination, your motivation, your religion, your inner
strengths.  These are your weapons.  Your physicians will use every weapon at
their disposal.  Together, you can make the decisions that may lead you out
of the valley of the shadow.

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The material contained here is "FOR INFORMATION ONLY" and should not replace
the counsel and advice of your personal physician.  Promptly consulting your
doctor is the best path to a quick and successful resolution of any medical
problem.