Chemotherapy

The treatment of life-taking diseases like cancer by chemicals that kill cells is medically known as chemotherapy. It involves the use of chemicals that kill the cells of harmful microorganisms and thus, inhibit their growth and development inside the human body.

Types of Chemotherapeutic Drugs

Chemotherapeutic drugs fall into the categories of alkylating agents, anthracyclines, antimetabolites, topoisomerase inhibitors, plant alkaloids and antitumour agents.

Procedure

All of chemotherapeutic drugs affect DNA synthesis or cell division to treat cancer. Some drugs do not directly get in the way of DNA. These include tyrosine kinase inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies, which directly attack the molecular abnormality of cancer-affected cells.

The Target Ailments

Two types of cancer that chemotherapy treats:

–	Gastrointestinal stromal tumors
–	Myelogenous leukemia

Disadvantages

Chemotherapy is an effective mode of cancer treatment. Though, it is preventive against cancer, it is not absolutely free from side effects. Cancer cells grow and develop faster than normal cells. Anticancer drugs generally kill growing cancer cells. These simultaneously affect certain normal and healthy cells to some extent. This damaging blow to normal and healthy cells results in side effects.

The normal cells, which are prone to be affected by chemotherapeutic drugs, are basically the cells of the digestive tract, bone marrow and the blood. Anticancer drugs also affect the cells of life-supporting organs of the body such as the lungs, heart, bladder, kidney and the nervous system. Severity of side effects varies with the type and dosage of cancer-preventive drugs.

Normal cells recover after the end of chemotherapy. So, many side effects disappear gradually, after the period of treatment is over. The healthy cells go back to the previous stage of normal growth and development. Severe and long-term side effects do not usually manifest from chemotherapeutic treatment of cancer. In some cases, it may cause permanent damage to the vital organs like the heart, lungs, kidney, the nervous system and reproductive system with delayed effects.

Recovery

The normal cells recover after chemotherapy; therefore, the side effects fade away gradually as the treatment ends. The healthy cells starts rejuvenating normally. However, the time to get over the side effects depend on several factors that includes kind of chemotherapy and health of the patient.