Types of chemotherapy
Different types of chemotherapy treatments include the use of various chemo drugs to treat different stages of cancerous growth. Depending on the drugs’ target base, duration and way of administration most types of chemotherapy are used to shrink or slow growth of tumours, which can then be removed by surgery after the treatment.
Chemotherapy treatment is also done after surgery, so that any dangerous and cancerous cells which have not been removed, during surgery are destroyed effectively. This is to make sure that the cancer does not come back. This type of chemotherapy is also done when you need to slow down the cancer’s progress, when it is in its advanced stage, and to shrink the cancerous tumour.
It is the job of your oncologist to plan the type of chemotherapy treatment, which is best for you. Some people insist upon having radiotherapy done at the same time as they are undergoing chemotherapy. This is quite effective in some tumours, then having it exposed to the same treatment separately.
One common type of chemotherapy is done to slow down the progress of the spreading disease and trying to keep the body alive for as long as possible. This chemotherapy treatment is known as palliative chemotherapy.
To treat dreadful diseases like leukaemia, chemotherapy is done as a high-dose treatment. The side effect of this type of chemotherapy is that many of the body’s immunity system cells get destroyed and that is why you need transplantation of bone marrow, so that all the cell tissue which has been destroyed because of the strong drugs is replaced.
There are a number of things which are deciding factors upon the type of the drugs to be used in chemotherapy treatment.
These factors are — your health, where did the cancer start, did or did not spread to the other parts of the body and the type of cancer. A continuous body monitoring is done during chemotherapy treatments, which include scans, blood tests, x-rays and urine tests.
Below is the short list of types of chemotherapy:
Alkylating agents are cell-cycle non-specific types of chemotherapy and most effective in the resting phase of the cell. Common names: Carboplatin, Cisplatin, and Oxaliplatin, Carmustine, Lomustine and Streptozocin.
Plant alkaloids are another common types of chemotherapy drugs that sourced from certain kinds of plants. These types of chemotherapy agents are cell-cycle specific which means the cells are targeted during various phases of division. Common names: Paclitaxel, Docetaxel, Vincristine, Vinblastine and Vinorelbine
Another types of chemotherapy medication are antitumor antibiotics which are produced of natural products that are byproduct of certain species of the soil fungus Streptomyces. These types of chemotherapy drugs are active during multiple phases of the cell cycle and are classified as cell-cycle specific. Common names: Doxorubicin, Daunorubicin, Epirubicin, Mitoxantrone, and Idarubicin
Toposiomerase inhibitors are another common types of chemotherapy medications that meddle with the action of topoisomerase enzymes aka topoisomerase I and II. While chemo treatments are in progress, topoisomerase enzymes take over the control of the structure of DNA necessary for replication. Common names: Topoisomerase I inhibitors such as Ironotecan, topotecan and Topoisomerase II inhibitors such as Amsacrine, etoposide, etoposide phosphate, teniposide.