A landmark study published recently has reported that about a fifth of chemotherapy drugs tested failed quality tests; 16 of the 17 implicated manufacturers are India-based.
About Chemotherapy:
Chemotherapy is a treatment that uses medicines to destroy cancer cells.
There are many different types of chemo. They don’t all work exactly the same way, so different types of chemo might be used for different types of cancer.
Most are given as an infusion into a vein (IV), but some are given as an injection, taken as pills, or applied to the skin.
How is Chemo Different from Other Cancer treatments?
Chemo is a systemic treatment.
It travels through the bloodstream to reach all parts of your body.
It can kill cancer cells that have spread (metastasized) to parts of the body far away from the original (primary) tumor or cancer cells in blood cancers, such as leukemia, that have spread throughout the body.
This makes chemo different from local treatments like surgery and radiation, which only affect one part of the body.
How Does Chemotherapy Work?
Chemotherapy works by affecting cells when they are growing and dividing to make new cells. During this process (called the cell cycle), cells:
Grow in size.
Make copies of their genetic material (DNA).
Divide to form new cells.
Some cells,such as skin cells, are fast-growing, meaning they move through this process quickly. Other cells, such as muscle cells, complete it more slowly.
Cancer cells tend to be faster growing, moving through the cell cycle very quickly.
Different types of chemo target cells at different phases of the cell cycle. This is why certain chemo drugs work better for different types of cancer cells, and sometimes different combinations of chemo work better together.
Understanding how chemo works also helps doctors plan how often each chemo should be given, and how those doses should be timed.
Side Effects:
Chemo interrupts the cell cycles of normal cells, too–especially cells that grow faster.
Blood cells and the cells in your skin, hair follicles, and digestive tract are examples of cells that grow and multiply quickly.
That’s why some common side effects of chemotherapy occur in these areas, including:
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