Chemotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that utilizes chemical agents in order to stop cancer cells from growing any further. Chemotherapy is capable of eliminating cancer cells from remote locations very far from the original cancer sources. Over 50% of cancer patients receive chemotherapy as a form of their treatment. It is considered to be a highly effective and safe form of cancer treatment. There are a lot of benefits associated with chemotherapy treatment.
Benefits
According to studies by the City of Hope Cancer Center, chemotherapy significantly lessens the chances of cancer relapse and death from the disease. Also, chemotherapy can be utilized before surgery to shrink the size of large tumors, therefore making a less invasive surgery option a real possibility. Chemotherapy also can eliminate the amount of cancer cells that can travel and spread to other parts of the body. This, in turn, will reduce the chances of cancer returning.
Potential
Chemotherapy has a lot of benefits for women with ovarian cancer, according to research conducted by the John Hopkins Ovarian Cancer Center. Chemotherapy lowers the risk of cancer recurrence with patients of Stage 1 cancer (cancer that has not spread out beyond the ovaries). Chemotherapy greatly lowers the chances of death with ovarian cancer patients and it greatly reduces the odds of the cancer from coming back.
Theories/Speculation
According to the Journey of the American Medical Association, chemotherapy also offers a lot of benefits for women dealing with breast cancer. Chemotherapy has shown to decrease the likelihood of breast cancer recurrence by 35% for breast cancer patients under the age of 50. For breast cancer patients between the ages of 50 and 69 years old, it lessened the likelihood of a breast cancer relapse by about 20%.
Effects
There are various positive effects from a type of chemotherapy treatment called Taxotere (chemotherapy drug Docetaxel), according to studies done by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. This chemotherapy greatly slowed down cancer growth, shrunk the size of the tumors, brought great relief from painful cancer symptoms and offered a better chance for their patients to live longer lives.
Considerations
Another type of chemotherapy treatment that should be considered is oral chemotherapy. This chemotherapy was developed to give patients more freedom with regards to their treatment. Some of the benefits of this, according to the Annals of Oncology review, include the fact that patients can take oral chemotherapy from the privacy and comfort of their own homes, as well as the fact that many oral chemotherapies (in the form of capsules or pills) are more effective than traditional chemotherapy options. Also, oral chemotherapy has shown less occurrences of side effects than IV therapy.
Tags: breast cancer, cancer patients, cancer cells, chemotherapy treatment, oral chemotherapy, benefits women