Side Effects of Cancer Treatment
These days’ chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, hormonal therapy and biological therapy are used to treat cancer patient. All these treatments are beneficial and give good results but also cause some side effects on the body.
Chemotherapy
- Side effects of chemotherapy depend on drug used for the treatment and quantity of dose given to a patient. Most of the time normal cells get affected by medicines.
- Blood cells, like WBC, RBC and platelets are affected. Less number of WBC leads to weakening of immune system. Patient becomes susceptible to different diseases and gets difficulty in blood clotting due to reduction of blood platelets.
- Normal cells of digestive tract also affected by chemotherapy. In such condition patients shows side effects like nausea and vomiting. Loss of hair, this can be temporary or permanent.
- Patient shows infection of bacteria or fungi because of mouth sores.
- Chemotherapy causes infertility. In male it reduces sperm count and in female menstrual period can be stopped temporary or permanently.
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Radiation therapy
In radiation therapy high energy radiations are bombarded on the cancer affected area. Just after a week or a month of the radiation treatment body shows side effects. At the time of treatment patient do not feel any pain but it causes damage to other body part. Most common side effects are given below.
- Nausea: Nausea feeling depends on the radiation type, period for treatment and affected body part to which treatment is given. Most of the patient suffers from nausea as well as vomiting.
- Hair loss: This side effect is common in most of the cancer treatments. Patient loses hair from the affected part which is bombarded by radiations.
- Fatigue: Patient becomes tired and feels exhausted. Working ability decreases.
- Blood cells: If patient is suffering from cancer related to long bones then radiation hits to the WBC and platelets weakens the immune system and person becomes susceptible to other infections.
- Skin becomes red and develops rashes
Surgery
Surgery is removal of the cancer affected part from the body. Side effects of surgery depend on which part is removed from the body and health of a patient. After surgery, patient feels very uncomfortable. Pain caused after surgery can be minimized by medicines. Patient experiences tiredness, loss of energy and weakness. Time taken to recover vary from patient to patient.
Hormone therapy
- Hormone therapy cause side effects like nauseas, vomiting
- Increase in body weight or inflammation
- It can create problems related to the reproductive system like disturbance in menstrual period and dryness of vagina
- Some time hormone therapy can leads to infertility
- Male causes inability or loss of desire for sex and loss of fertility. These effects may be temporary or long lasting.
Biological therapy
Biological therapy also causes side effects which depend on kind of treatment.
- Increase in body temperature or fever
- Patient experiences muscle pain, weakness and tiredness
- Loss of desire for food, vomiting and diarrhea
- Patient shows rashes and bleeding
- Swelling
