About the Side Effects of ACT Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dr. Grace Wang. I'm a medical oncologist working at Advanced Medical Specialties in Miami, Florida. I'm here on the behalf of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Let's talk about the side effects of ACT chemotherapy, which is Adriamycin, Cytoxan, and then Taxol. Some of the side effects may be nausea, but we are very good at preventing nausea nowadays with our medications, both in the IV or orally. It can cause low blood counts, making you at risk for infection or bleeding. And again, we have good growth factors to prevent the low white counts so that the counts stay up so there's less risk of infection. There may be mouth sores or diarrhea. Adriamycin may cause heart toxicity, but usually not if your heart is normal to begin with with an ECHO or a MUGA scan, and we don't go over a certain dosage, which we won't. There is a tiny risk of leukemia, but usually, it's so tiny that the benefit weigh...outweighs the risk. The Taxol can sometimes cause a neuropathy, a numbness and tingling, and can cause an allergic reaction so we give medications to prevent an allergic reaction."