Radiation and Chemotherapy Side Effects

Formation of cancer cells results from mutation of normal cells that escape the normal restraint on cell division. That is, those cells function differently of other cells in a tissue. This anomie causes the development of cancer cells, which gradually multiply and possibly affect other normal tissues (metastasis). Without medical intervention, this abnormal overgrowth can cause a general degeneration of your body, and sometimes death. To stop the abnormal proliferation, your oncologist can use chemotherapy, radiation or both.

Chemotherapy - Chemotherapy is a systemic treatment of cancer consists of a combination of drugs administered at a précised interval. This can be done intravenously or orally. Those antineoplastic drugs kill "rapidly dividing cells", which include cancer cells and, unfortunately, certain normal cells (cells in the blood, in the mouth, in the stomach and bowel, in the hair follicles, in the skin, etc.). Due to its damage on healthy cells, chemotherapy always causes side effects, which sometimes, last a lifetime.

Radiotherapy - Radiation, in the other hand, is a therapeutic method involves exposing cancer cells to a controlled dose of radiation to kill them or makes them unable to multiply. Unlike chemotherapy, radiation treatment is not systematic. It is, in contrast, a locoregional treatment, which focuses its therapeutic action on the exposed body part (a tumor for instance). However, normal cells exposed to the radiation are also affected, causing side effects. Those side effects can be diverse and varied depending on the location of the irradiation.

To be more effective, radiation therapy is often associated with chemotherapy, which leads to more side effects. The damages of those therapies are enormous; it is impossible to name all of them in this article. Some adverse effects reported by individual undergoing chemotherapy and radiation include infertility, hair loss, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, skin disorders, constipation, nail problems, hearing loss, fatigue, decreased sexual desire, irritation of the mouth, change in sleep habits, lack of appetite, and range of emotional problems. Some chemotherapy drugs may even increase your risk of heart disease and other cancer.

Side effects of chemotherapy and radiation are multiple; it is not an easy task to describe all of them in this article. On our website, we content not only to name them, but also the way to reverse them. cancer treatment can make your life miserable; there are, however, steps you can take to prevent or reverse those effects. For descriptive details on each one, visit chemotherapyradiation.