What is Chemotherapy and Radiation?

Question

What is Chemotherapy and Radiation? I need a good resource for Chemotherapy and Radiation. Also. What are the Pros and Cons to Chemotherapy and Radiation. Also how is Chemotherapy and Radiation used? How does it work? If someone could answer all of these questions that would be great! Thanks!

Answer 1

To cure cancer - with some types of cancer, chemotherapy is likely to destroy all the cancer cells and cure the disease.
To reduce the chance of a cancer coming back - chemotherapy may be given after surgery or radiotherapy so that if any cancer cells remain, but are too small to see, they can be destroyed by the chemotherapy.
To shrink a cancer, reduce symptoms and prolong life - if a cure is not possible, chemotherapy may be given to shrink and control a cancer, or to reduce the number of cancer cells and try to reduce symptoms and prolong a good quality of life. This is known as palliative chemotherapy.Chemotherapy is the use of anti-cancer (cytotoxic) drugs to destroy cancer cells (including leukaemia and lymphoma). There are over 50 different chemotherapy drugs. Some are given on their own but often several drugs may be combined (this is known as combination chemotherapy).

The type of chemotherapy treatment you are given for your cancer depends on many things, particularly the type of cancer you have, where in the body it started, what the cancer cells look like under the microscope and whether they have spread to other parts of the body
Different chemotherapy drugs cause different side effects, and some people may have very few. Cancer treatments cause different reactions in different people and any reaction can vary from treatment to treatment. It may be helpful to remember that almost all side effects are only short-term and will gradually disappear once the treatment has stopped.

The main areas of your body that may be affected by chemotherapy are those where normal cells rapidly divide and grow, such as the lining of your mouth, the digestive system, your skin, hair and bone marrow (the spongy material that fills the bones and produces new blood cells).

If you want to know more about the side effects that may be caused by your chemotherapy treatment you should ask your doctor or chemotherapy nurse, as they will know the exact drugs you are taking. Although the side effects of chemotherapy can be unpleasant, they need to be weighed against the benefits of the treatment. However, if you find that the treatment or its side effects are making you unwell, you should tell your doctor or chemotherapy nurse. You may be able to have medicines to help you, or changes can be made to your treatment to lessen any side effects.chemo can be given through a iv or by a pill most given in iv.i have had 12 months of chemo.and 6 weeks radation...Radiation therapy is one of the many tools used to combat cancers. Radiation treatments utilize high-energy waves such as x-rays to kill cancer cells. Radiation can be used alone or in conjunction with other treatments (e.g. chemotherapy and surgery) to cure or stabilize cancer.

Like other therapies, the choice to use radiation to treat a particular cancer depends on a wide range of factors. These include, but are not limited to, the type of cancer, the physical state of the patient, the stage of the cancer, and the location of the tumor.therapy (or radiotherapy) is an important technique for shrinking tumors. High energy waves are targeted at the cancerous growth. The waves cause damage within the cells, disrupt cellular processes, prevent accurate cell division, and ultimately cause the cells to die. The death of the cells causes the tumor to shrink. One drawback of radiotherapy is that radiation is not specific to cancerous cells and may damage healthy cells as well.

Reactions of Normal and Cancerous Tissue to Therapy:
The response of tumors and normal tissues to radiation depends on their proliferative patterns before therapy starts and during treatment. Radiation kills cells through interactions with DNA and other target molecules. Death is not instantaneous, but occurs when the cells try to divide but fail-a process termed abortive mitosis. For this reason, radiation damage is manifest more quickly in tissues containing cells that are dividing rapidly

Normal tissue compensates for the cells lost during radiation treatment by accelerating the division of the remaining cells. In contrast, tumor cells actually divide more slowly after radiation treatment, and the tumor may decrease in size. The degree of tumor shrinkage depends on the balance between cell production and cell death. Carcinomas are an example of a type of cancer that often has high division rates. These types of cancer tend to respond well to radiation therapy. Depending on the dose of radiation used and the individual tumor, the tumor may start to grow again after cessation of therapy, often slower than before. To prevent regrowth of the tumor radiation is often coupled with surgery and/or chemotherapy.
Destroys quickly dividing cells at the margins of tumors. Surgery may miss these cells leading to recurrence of disease.
Can successfully eradicate growth without permanently damaging the adjacent normal tissue. If these tumors can be treated early before metastasis, there is a very high rate of curability.
In conjunction with other treatments, may cure tumors that are not responsive to any single agent.
Radioactive seed implants can deliver high doses of radiation directly to the tumor sparing nearby healthy cells. Less severe side effects than external radiation therapy.
Preoperative radiation therapy can kill tumor cells at margins of the tumor site. It can keep the cancer under control and prevent metastases, and also convert technically inoperable tumors into operable ones.
Postoperative radiation therapy can destroy cancer cells still present around the margins after a tumor has been surgically removed.
Possible Side Effects


Fatigue (in part due to energy expended in replacing normal cells killed in the process)
Skin irritation, redness, lesions, peeling
Hair loss
Loss of taste
Erectile dysfunction
Decreased blood count (may be monitored by the clinician overseeing the treatment)
Increased susceptibility to infection
Difficulty swallowing and decreased appetite
Oral mucositis (increased proliferation of the mouth epithelial cells/ lining)
Younger patients receiving radiotherapy are more likely to develop secondary tumors because of their longer post-treatment life span.
Large tumor masses often contain oxygen-deficient cells in the center that are resistant to radiation therapy and therefore not affected by the therapy.
External Radiation Therapy requires a significant amount of time. The entire process may span 4-5 weeks with treatments given 5 days per week. The actual treatments usually only last a few minutes.
Preoperative radiation therapy can:
(1)obscure the extent of the tumor and interfere with surgery, (2)create anxiety because of the delay until surgery, (3) increase the risk of postoperative complications.

you must have to have these or no someone who does. good luck to you.

Answer 2

Chemotherapy is treating someone living with cancer - by giving them chemicals. The chemicals are highly toxic to cancer cells and not quite so bad for healthy cells. As a result, the hope is that chemotherapy destroys the cancer without causing too much harm to the person.

Radiation / Radiotherapy is the use of a radiation source to bombard the cancerous area with radiation. Again cancerous cells are more prone to this than healthy cells - and as such the hope once again is that cancer is destroyed while leaving other tissue relatively unharmed.

The pros are simple - it may well save someones life. The cons are hair loss (often temporary) and the fact that people can feel extremely unwell due to either or both types of treatment. Also, there is no cast-iron guarantee that it will work.

I am only a lay person here, I do NOT have specialist knowledge - and ideally you might want to speak with an oncologist (cancer specialist) for more detailed explanations and answers to any other questions that you might have.

Answer 3

You've been given websites to refer to and have had a book written for you on the subject you wish answered. So I'll not attempt to expound on what it is so obviously available to you, but I will present experience that I know first-hand, if not my own, then my wife's. She had pancreatic cancer thee years ago, a most often deadly kind of cancer, and she is doing well.

She was determined to be a good candidate for surgery, and it went well. Few patients with pancreatic cancer can be saved with surgery. Soon after surgery, she started chemotherapy. While many recovering cancer patients had to come even daily to be administered the "cocktail" of potent anti-cancer serum at the specialists' treatment room where 20 or so couches were occupied by mostly elderly people, my wife was fitted for a pack that administered it 24/7 and came in once a week to be checked and refilled. This treatment did make her weak. She did not loose her hair, but it did thin badly. Sometimes she was a bit nauseated.

Soon after starting "chemo" she was fitted for a "target" pad for the radiation machine. She would have a new kind of radiation treatment that would pinpoint areas for bombardment instead of more general radiation. The surgery had left my wife with a much truncated plumbing system, little left of the pancreas, a shortened duodenum and upper intestine, and a few other parts less than they had been. The radiation was then aimed to stop cancer cells from spreading in areas that were most critical. Weekly sessions for about 15 to 20 minutes on the radiation machine, with the mechanism moving around her in a given sequence of "shots" controlled by a technician at a large, shielded panel, but preprogramed ahead. These sessions left my wife weaker yet, and again, nauseaous, but not so severe that she couldn't withstand them until the very end when she refused the remaining two treatments.

She regained her strength, has lived with the thin hair, and is happy to be alive. Checkups have given her a clean bill every six months now and her doctors don't see why she won't be cancer-free indifinitely, though will check her regularly. She was fortunate to have a surgeon who could perform the specialized surgery she had, and other doctors whose skill aided her from the initial identification of her condition early enough to her new doctor where we've moved who she trusts. I'm most thankful for them, also.

So this is a real-life story of surviving cancer with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. One may be as necessary as the other, I think.

Answer 4

Try this site:
http://www.chemotherapy.com/
There may be a similar one for radiation, I don't know. Maybe you could google it.
Chemo targets all rapidly reproducing cells and kills them. That's why your hair falls out, your nails don't grow, and women don't have periods while on chemo. Chemo kills the good along with the bad. Then, when it's over the good grows back and hopefully the bad doesn't. Does that make sense?
Radiation just kills whatever's in its path. It's directed at a specific target. It doesn't hurt, it just feels like a long x-ray. But you get really chapped skin after a while, like you're starting to cook or something.
Hope this helps, best wishes.
You can email me if you have more questions. I'm not a doctor, just a survivor.

Answer 5

Chemotherapy is cancer treatment that is administered intravaneously. Nowadays it's in a convenient little carry pack that you wear on a belt under your clothes.

Radiation therapy is when the area that is cancerous or has a tumor is "pelted" with radiation to kill the mass.

Chemotherapy has several disadvantages, as it can cause you to be weak, disoriented, feel fatigued.

Radiation therapy can be inconvenient because you have to go to the health center to get it done, and it can actually cause you to get sicker.

Both can make your hair fall out, and both have similar side effects.

Chemotherapy is more effective, in my opinion, because you can do it while at your home, work, etc etc, and the side effects wear off quickly.

Answer 6

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2005. I had 6 cycles of ACT followed by 30 rounds of radiation. I had a tougher time with chemo. I had body aches, loss of appetite, extreme fatigue, and of course, I lost all of my hair (and I do mean all). During radiation I experienced a severe burn (make sure you ask for the cream before you burn) and a little bit of tiredness, but nothing compared to the chemo. As for the hair, mine started coming back in the middle of my radiation. I think it really depends on the kind of chemo you had and how long the interval is between chemo and radiation. May God bless you as you endure this challenge. I know He did me.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

http://www.umm.edu/thoracic/lung_therapy.html

Answer 9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemotherapy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_treatment