Doctors usually give these drugs with breaks, so you have time to rest and recover before the next treatment. This lets your healthy cells heal. For example, you might get a dose of chemotherapy on the first day and then have 3 weeks of recovery time before repeating the treatment.
Each 3 week period is called a cycle of treatment. You normally have about 6 cycles in all, but you may have more. It takes 3 to 4 hours to have each treatment in the outpatients department. On rare occasions you might have it over 24 hours, when you would stay in hospital overnight.
You may have treatments every week or every 2, 3 or 4 weeks. How often you have treatment also depends on which drugs you are having, as well as your treatment plan. When you have chemotherapy through an infusion pump, you may have the drugs: all the time for a few months (continuous administration)
Aim. Three weeks paclitaxel and carboplatin has been considered the standard of care for primary treatment of ovarian cancer (OC). Whether weekly therapy will further improve the clinical outcomes or not is still unclear.
Short, planned delays in chemotherapy for good-risk GCT patients (less than or equal to 7 days per cycle) appear to be acceptable since they may prevent serious toxicity in this curable patient population. Delays of longer than 7 days are strongly discouraged except in extraordinary life-threatening circumstances.
A return to normalcy is typical, but it takes a while – usually six months or so. “All who have done chemo do finally get back to normal,” Patricia said. “Treatment for breast cancer can take a whole year, but six months after it ends, life comes back – incisions heal, hair grows back, chemo brain fog lifts.”
The effects of chemo are cumulative. They get worse with each cycle. My doctors warned me: Each infusion will get harder. Each cycle, expect to feel weaker.
Nerve damage can occur with chemotherapy, and this may get worse with each dose. Sometimes, treatment has to be stopped because of this. However, other side effects, including nausea, constipation and diarrhea, are not typically cumulative with repeated treatment.
Doxorubicin is considered one of the strongest chemotherapy drugs for breast cancer ever invented. It can kill cancer cells at every point in their life cycle, and it's used to treat a wide variety of cancers, not just breast cancer. Doxorubicin is also known as “The Red Devil” because it is a clear bright red color.
Chemotherapy drugs target cancer cells which stop or slow their growth. A person undergoing chemotherapy should avoid eating undercooked or raw food, interacting with actively infectious people, overexerting themselves, and consuming too much alcohol.
If your cancer is responding to the treatment, your doctor will likely recommend continuing the chemotherapy until the cancer stops growing or you develop unacceptable side effects from the treatment.
Many people feel fine for the first few hours following chemotherapy. Usually, some reaction occurs about four to six hours later. However, some people don't react until 12 or even 24 to 48 hours after treatment. Some people experience almost all of the side effects described below, while others experience almost none.
For most people the side effects were worst in the first few days after treatment, then they gradually felt better until the next treatment. Some said the effects were worse with each successive treatment. Most side effects don't persist and disappear within a few weeks after the end of treatment.
Your course of chemotherapy
You usually have a course of several cycles of treatment over a few months. Each cycle of TC takes 21 days (3 weeks). On the first day of each cycle, you will have docetaxel and cyclophosphamide. You will then have no chemotherapy for the next 20 days.
Most types of pain related to chemotherapy get better or go away between individual treatments. However, nerve damage often gets worse with each dose. Sometimes the drug causing the nerve damage has to be stopped. It can take months or years for nerve damage from chemotherapy to improve or go away.
Chemotherapy can cause fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, bowel issues such as constipation or diarrhoea, hair loss, mouth sores, skin and nail problems. You may have trouble concentrating or remembering things. There can also be nerve and muscle effects and hearing changes.
You may experience nausea (feeling like you might throw up) and vomiting (throwing up) after your last chemotherapy treatment. It should go away in 2 to 3 weeks. Your appetite may continue to be affected due to taste changes you may have experienced during your treatment.
One week post-chemo! "They" say that's one of the toughest weeks. The one right after chemo, especially your first round. It's a week of figuring out how your body will respond after the infusions, and it's different for every person.
Many cancer patients do experience some side effects of chemotherapy—both short-term and long-term—but others experience very few.
Chemotherapy. You may feel most worn out for a few days after each chemo treatment. Your fatigue may get worse with each treatment. For some people, fatigue is worst about halfway through the full course of chemo.
Just remember your immune system is weaker than usual and it may be harder for your body to fight off infections. If you do go out, try to avoid situations where you might come into close contact with people who may be sick.
Chemotherapy lowers your amount of red blood cells, which carry oxygen around the body. If your red blood cell count drops too low, you'll develop anaemia. Symptoms of anaemia include: tiredness and lack of energy – this tends to be more severe than the general fatigue associated with chemotherapy.
Why does chemo cause side effects? Cancer cells tend to grow fast, and chemo drugs kill fast-growing cells. But because these drugs travel throughout the body, they can affect normal, healthy cells that are fast-growing, too. Damage to healthy cells causes side effects.