Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy has been a standard treatment option for many decades for almost all cancers like breast cancer, lung cancer, etc. In simplest words, we can say that chemotherapy is just like antibiotics and kills fast-dividing cells like cancer cells. There are other fast-growing cells in the body like hair, blood cells, etc so the side effects of chemotherapy include hair loss, mouth ulcer, or reduction in blood.

​

Most chemotherapies are given as injections via veins in the body. Although depending on the cancer stage, location, and type of cancer chemo may also be given into the skin, into the abdomen, in the brain, or the arteries. 

​

Some chemotherapies are also available in tablet form like cyclophosphamide or capecitabine. Many times, the injection chemotherapy may come cheaper than its oral tablet but patients prefer tablet chemotherapy because of the ease of taking it. It is also a misconception that tablet chemotherapy does not have side effects but it is not the case. Many times injection chemotherapy has more manageable side effects than its oral counterpart. this depends on the response of the body to chemotherapy.

 

Choosing a chemotherapy medicine and its dose is based on the knowledge and experience of the doctor. Expert cancer physicians can give high-risk chemotherapy to frail/weak elderly with a lot of other illnesses like diabetes or high blood pressure. Choose your Cancer Doctor or medical oncologist wisely. Blindly following the dose of the chemotherapy as given in books is not appropriate.

​

Chemotherapy administration is an art so it should be given only by qualified nurses. Little extra dilution or leak of the drug into the skin can cause serious side effects like non-healing ulcers. Hence, we take utmost care to hire our staff. Our founder, Dr Bharat Patodiya, gets an injection from every new staff to judge their skills. You can see him getting injections by new staff in the videos.

 

 The major barriers to chemotherapy treatment are cost and side effects.