03 January 2022, Monday

Your Guide to Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is one of the foundations of modern bone sarcoma treatment and has revolutionized the management of chemo-sensitive tumors like Osteosarcoma, Ewing’s sarcoma, etc.

Chemotherapy is one of the foundations of modern bone sarcoma treatment and has revolutionized the management of chemo-sensitive tumors like Osteosarcoma, Ewing’s sarcoma, etc.

The advances in ‘Limb Salvage Surgery’ and its establishment as the surgical treatment of choice in the management of extremity bone sarcomas is largely due to the huge improvement in survival rendered by chemotherapy.

However, in some bone sarcomas like Chondrosarcoma, etc., chemotherapy has so far not been proven to be useful. Chemotherapy is a form of cancer treatment involving the use of powerful drugs, which are either injected into the body or administered through the mouth.

These drugs are toxic to the cells of living tissue. Therefore, it is also called as ‘cytotoxic chemotherapy’.

However, they are more toxic to cancer cells than normal cells. Hence, in the doses which are given to the patient, they kill cancer cells in much larger numbers as compared to normal cells.

Nevertheless, chemotherapy does cause significant side effects like hair loss, nausea, vomiting, weakness, etc. This is the reason why chemotherapy is given in limited doses, over intervals of several days, which gives the normal tissues time to recover.

These are called ‘chemotherapy cycles’, as they are repeated over regular intervals. The drugs used in each cycle and the number of cycles depends on the treatment regimen being followed, which in turn depends on the type and stage of the cancer being treated.

A lot of the side effects of chemotherapy are nowadays very well controlled with effective drugs. Also, the hair generally grows back within weeks of stopping the chemotherapy.

Further Reads:

1. What is grading of the response to the Neo-Adjuvant Chemotherapy?

2. What is Radiotherapy?

3. What is Limb Salvage Surgery?