When chemo is not working you'll usually notice signs of the chemo not working which include a tumor growing or not shrinking and cancer that is spreading to other areas of the body, a process called metastasis and or the cancer symptoms returning.
When your chemo is not working your oncologist might suggest new treatments, such as trying different combinations of chemotherapy drugs that include experimental options.
Still, you and your oncologist must consider whether more treatment will improve your health, or whether it's best to stop treatment altogether and pursue palliative care.
Chemo works in your body to destroy cancer cells and chemo works in the body by keeping the cancer cells from growing, dividing, and making more cells.
Chemotherapy is a drug treatment that uses powerful chemicals to kill fast-growing cells in your body.
Chemotherapy is most often used to treat cancer, since cancer cells grow and multiply much more quickly than most cells in the body.
Chemotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen.
Chemotherapy may be given with a curative intent, or it may aim to prolong life or to reduce symptoms.
Most cycles of chemo range from 2 to 6 weeks.
The number of treatment doses of chemo scheduled within each cycle also depends on the prescribed chemotherapy.
For example, each cycle may contain only 1 dose on the first day.
Or, a cycle may contain more than 1 dose given each week or each day.
You may experience nausea (feeling like you might throw up) and vomiting (throwing up) after your last chemotherapy treatment.
It should go away in 2 to 3 weeks.
Your appetite may continue to be affected due to taste changes you may have experienced during your treatment.
Some people feel the effects of chemo right away, but for others, it takes a day or two.
Chemotherapy is a drug-based treatment for cancer.
It's commonly administered intravenously, although some chemotherapy drugs are injected or taken orally.
While this treatment may cause discomfort, it isn't typically painful.
Pain caused by nerve damage is a potential short-term effect of chemotherapy.
During the 3 decades, the proportion of survivors treated with chemotherapy alone increased (from 18% in 1970-1979 to 54% in 1990-1999), and the life expectancy gap in this chemotherapy-alone group decreased from 11.0 years (95% UI, 9.0-13.1 years) to 6.0 years (95% UI, 4.5-7.6 years).
It usually takes at least 30 minutes for the drugs to arrive.
Some of the pre-medications may be steroids, anti-nausea medications and/or anxiety medications.
Each doctor will send an order to the infusion room telling them what chemotherapy and pre-medications to administer.