Breast Cancer Chemotherapy

What Is Chemotherapy?

Breast cancer chemotherapy is a treatment with anticancer medicines that can be taken either intravenously or orally. These drugs are carried by bloodstream and reach cancer cells in most body tissues and organs.

When Is Breast Cancer Chemotherapy Used?

Chemotherapy can be used after lumpectomy or mastectomy as adjuvant therapy in order to reduce the risk of recurrence. Breast cancer chemotherapy is also used to treat cancer that has spread to other organs as well. Neoadjuvant therapy is chemotherapy given before a surgical procedure to reduce the size of the tumor to the point where it can be removed by lumpectomy. Breast cancer chemotherapy is also used to check how the patient responds to a certain combination of drugs.

Generally, breast cancer chemotherapy gives the best results as an adjuvant therapy, combining several anticancer drugs. Several research studies during the last 30 years have tried to determine what combination of drugs is most effective. However, researchers are still looking for an even better breast cancer chemotherapy treatment than the one already discovered. 

Side Effects

Breast cancer chemotherapy can have various side effects depending on the types an quantity of the drugs and the duration of the treatment. Common short-term side effects include nausea, fatigue, vomiting, mouth sores, hair loss and loss of appetite. Changes in a woman’s menstrual cycle as a result of chemotherapy can be either temporary or permanent. Chemotherapy can also affect a patient’s blood marrow.

There are some remedies for many of short-term chemotherapy side effects. There are some drugs which help the bone marrow recover and others that reduce vomiting and nausea.

Premature menopause and infertility are other possible permanent side effects of chemotherapy. The older the patient is when receiving breast cancer chemotherapy, the higher the risk to become infertile or have premature menopause.

Adriamycin, a drug used in breast cancer chemotherapy, can lead to permanent heart damage when used in high doses and for a long period. However, doctors usually control the dose of these drugs carefully and use several types of tests to monitor the patient’s heart.

Another potential negative result of chemotherapy is “chemo brain”. Some of the patients who have followed a breast cancer chemotherapy experience side effects such as difficulty to concentrate and remember things. This may last quite a long time, but it is so severe as to interfere with the patient’s capacity to perform intellectual tasks.

A large number of women have reported that they do not feel as healthy as they used to after receiving breast cancer chemotherapy. They might get a feeling of bodily pain or slight decrease in physical functioning. This is a subtle effect that can be revealed only after a thorough questioning of chemotherapy patients.

Finally, many women do not feel as healthy after receiving chemotherapy as they did before. There is often a feeling of bodily pain and a mild loss of physical functioning. This is a very subtle change that is only revealed by close questioning of women who have undergone chemotherapy.

A very rare side effect that can show up a couple of years after breast cancer chemotherapy is acute myeloid leukemia, a severe type of cancer that affects white blood cells.

However, the benefits of breast cancer chemotherapy in fighting the disease and preventing recurrence definitely exceed its side effects, even very serious, but extremely rare ones.