How to Join Clinical Trials for Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is one of the methods of combating cancer. Though this method can give excellent results, the drugs used to carry it out are very toxic. After chemotherapy, you have to take different sessions to cleanse the body from harmful substances derived from drugs.
Chemotherapy is a medical therapy which includes cytotoxic drugs that help in the formation of new healthy cells. Drugs are injected directly into the bloodstream, allowing them to circulate throughout the body.
Follow-up care and rehabilitation is extremely important after removing the tumour because relapses may occur again even after ten years of treatment.
Instructions
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Typically, this treatment is carried out in several stages and may last from two to three months to several years. The choice of drugs is made by a medical oncologist depending upon the type of tumour, the histological structure and stage of disease.
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A disadvantage of chemotherapy is toxicity. It not only damages abnormal cells but healthy cells as well. This results in causing side effects such as nausea and vomiting, depression of bone marrow, liver and kidneys. In addition, chemotherapy drugs have a negative effect on the hair follicles. So, the majority of cancer patients undergoing treatment should know that the hair will fall out sooner or later. It also has a huge impact on the immune system: it makes body's defences weak, due to which the patient becomes vulnerable to bacterial, viral and fungal infections.
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Depending on the doctor's appointments, chemotherapy may be used in the form of pills or injections. Treatment cycles carried out with a small time interval, which is the restoration of the body. In most cases, to increase the effect, take several different drugs in a specific set pattern.
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In order to mitigate the side effects shown in the symptomatic treatment: use antiemetic and anti-bacterial agents, hepatoprotectors (drugs that normalize the functioning of the liver) and drugs that stimulate the bone marrow activity.
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Please note that chemotherapy can affect the results of cervical smear. If you do not have any alternative for some reason, go for gynaecological examination, in order to be confident in the results.
