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Chemotherapy is the complex method of killing micro-organisms and cells. Doctors often use these antineoplastic drugs as a part of a standardized treatment regimen in order to treat cancer. Chemotherapy is also used to fight other conditions such as autoimmune diseases and to lessen the chances of body rejecting a new organ after a... more »
Chemotherapy is the treatment of disease using cell-killing chemicals. Surgery and radiation are often part of chemotherapy, as they kill or damage cancer cells in a certain location of the body. The entire process of chemotherapy, however, works throughout the whole body to kill cancer cells that may have spread from the primary... more »
According to the American Cancer Society, chemotherapy, which has been used since the 1950s, is often used to treat cancer and other diseases. Powerful chemical agents are used to stop or slow the growth of cancer cells throughout the body. Chemotherapy may be administered by a pill, a shot or through an intravenous line. Dosages vary... more »
Chemotherapy is administered in two popular ways: orally and intravenously. Oral chemotherapy comes in the form of a tablet or a capsule that can be swallowed with a glass of water. The benefits to oral chemotherapy are great. Taking tablets means the cancer patient can stay at home without having to make any trips to the hospital... more »
The list of chemotherapy medications that are used by oncologists (cancer doctors) today is quite lengthy. Chemotherapy drugs are classified according to how they work to treat the disease, and what effects they have on the body. Categories of chemotherapy medications are: plant alkaloids, steroids, anti-tumor medications,... more »
Chemotherapy is the most widely used treatment for cancer patients and usually involves...
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Cancer is a disease that affects many different areas of the body and causes rogue cells to grow...
According to the American Cancer Society, chemotherapy refers to using drugs or medicines to treat cancer. There are more than 100 types of drugs... more »
Chemotherapy is a form of cancer treatment that introduces chemicals into the body to fight cancer cells. It is often delivered intravenously,... more »
Chemotherapy, often referred to as "chemo," is a medical process used in the treatment of cancer. It uses chemicals to help slow or stop the... more »
Although "chemotherapy" can refer to any drug used to treat an illness, the vast majority of people associate the term with a class of medicines... more »
Radiation and chemotherapy are common treatments given to cancer patients. Radiation is used to treat localized tumors and chemotherapy is a drug... more »
Chemotherapy, in its most general sense, is the treatment of disease by chemicals especially by killing micro-organisms or cancerous cells. In popular usage, it refers to antineoplastic drugs used to treat cancer or the combination of these drugs into a cytotoxic standardized treatment regimen. In its non-oncological use, the term may also refer to antibiotics (antibacterial chemotherapy). In that sense, the first modern chemotherapeutic agent was Paul Ehrlichs arsphenamine, an arsenic compound discovered in 1909 and used to treat syphilis. This was later followed by sulfonamides discovered by Domagk and penicillin discovered by Alexander Fleming.
Most commonly, chemotherapy acts by killing cells that divide rapidly, one of the main properties of cancer cells. This means that it also harms cells that divide rapidly under normal circumstances: cells in the bone marrow, digestive tract and hair follicles; this results in the most common side effects of chemotherapy—myelosuppression (decreased production of blood cells), mucositis (inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract) and alopecia (hair loss).
Other uses of cytostatic chemotherapy agents (including the ones mentioned below) are the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Dermatomyositis, Polymyositis, Lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and the suppression of transplant rejections (see immunosuppression and DMARDs). Newer anticancer drugs act directly against abnormal proteins in cancer cells; this is termed targeted therapy.
History
The use of minerals and plant-based medicines are believed to date back to prehistoric medicine.
The first use of drugs to treat cancer, however, was in the early 20th century, although it was not originally intended for that purpose. Mustard gas was used as a chemical warfare agent during World War I and was studied further during World War II. During a military operation in World War II, a group of people were accidentally e read more at » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemotherapy
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