ABOUT CHEMOTHERAPY TREATMENT

Most cancer patients have no idea what chemicals doctors are treating them with in terms of side effects, negative symptoms, and how often and to how many individuals these chemicals have been in use. It is important first off to know if the chemo a cancer patient is being treated with has been found successful elsewhere, or whether or not that chemical has even treated any other cancer patient. The point is to find out all about this chemical. Do your research. Google the product. Ask serious questions regarding the effectiveness of this chemical. Does it follow a certain protocol which certain hospitals follow , regardless of the patient.

You may want to know , for example, if a chemo shuts down the bowels as a side effect, which could eventually lead to an inability of the patient to eat or drink. There may be excessive nausea, or vomiting. You need to ask your doctor what negative side effects could result from the administration of the particular chemo application to the cancer patient.

It is very important also not to be intimidated by your doctor. Do not be fearful of obtaining information on the results of this particular chemo's use. How successful , you should know, has this chemo been on patients with similar cancers, like ovarian cancer for example.

Cancers mutate. In some instances , when a cancer returns to the cancer patient after it has been in remission for a long period of time, say four years for example, the original cancer may have mutated to another cancer now resistant to the original chemo which sent the first cancer into remission. So it is very possible that the chemo which sent the original chemo into remission may not work the second time around.

Supervision of chemo treatment is extremely important, by the doctors and by the family. The results of chemo treatment on an ongoing basis is particularly necessary. It is not good for chemo to be applied for weeks on end and not know if the chemo is effective! If it is not effective, then obviously the cancer is spreading, and the cancer patient has lost critical time. A cancer patient must be alert early on to the effectiveness of the chemo treatment. Your doctor must be supervising the treatment with an absolute minimum amount of time in between treatments. Be cognizant of what is going on at all time. Ask your doctor questions like: how often should a CT-Scan be performed to determine cancer growth. If a chemical is not working the scan will tell us if the cancer has grown, and the chemo is not working. Simple common sense conclusion. It could be possible to do a sonogram. Your doctor will know, but it cannot hurt to get a second opinion. This stage when chemo is being administered is a critical time for the cancer patient, and as much information as possible should be obtained during this process in order to make important and critical decisions about any particular chemo result. In short, the sooner one learns whether or not the chemo is working the better.