The treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a combination of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but chemotherapy also plays a very important role in the treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. For nasopharyngeal carcinoma with metastasis, chemotherapy is the main treatment tool. For patients without metastasis, chemotherapy is divided into induction chemotherapy, synchronous chemotherapy and adjuvant chemotherapy, which is scheduled before radiotherapy, synchronous chemotherapy with radiotherapy, and adjuvant chemotherapy after radiotherapy to improve the efficacy of radiotherapy.
Patients with nasopharyngeal cancer are often very afraid of the side effects of chemotherapy before treatment, so many patients do not get proper treatment because of such fears. With a certain understanding of common chemotherapy regimens for nasopharyngeal cancer and active prevention and treatment, most people can actually tolerate the treatment well. The commonly used chemotherapy drugs for nasopharyngeal cancer include cisplatin, carboplatin, paclitaxel, doxorubicin, gemcitabine, fluorouracil, etc. The following are the common chemotherapy regimen side effects and the treatment methods.
I. Doxorubicin combined with cisplatin. The main side effects of this regimen are.
1, bone marrow suppression, mainly manifested as leukopenia, can be treated with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor to raise leukocytes.
2. Gastrointestinal reactions, including nausea and vomiting, constipation and diarrhea, bloating and loss of appetite. Tropisetron, Imodium, Gastrodia, Dexamethasone and other drugs can be used for prevention and treatment.
3, hair loss, there is no effective treatment, generally 1-3 months after the end of chemotherapy hair began to grow out.
4, hypotension, manifested as dizziness, easy to fall, so in the night to get up and the toilet to stand up must be slow, must be accompanied by family members.
5, kidney damage, mainly due to cisplatin, so before chemotherapy to calculate the creatinine clearance, chemotherapy to fully hydrate.
6, edema, mainly due to sodium retention caused by doxorubicin, needs to be pretreated with some dexamethasone.
7, allergy, doxorubicin has allergic reactions, this emphasis on prevention, available dexamethasone prevention and treatment.
8, peripheral nerve injury, numbness of hands and feet will occur when the number of chemotherapy cycles increases.
Second, paclitaxel combined with carboplatin, this chemotherapy regimen side effects are mainly.
1, bone marrow suppression, but the degree is less than the first program.
2, hair loss.
3. Mild gastrointestinal reactions.
4, allergy. Overall, compared with the first regimen, the side effects are much less severe and the treatment is similar.
Third, gemcitabine combined with cisplatin, the side effects of the modified regimen are.
1, myelosuppression, mainly gemcitabine-induced thrombocytopenia, which can be complicated by bleeding in severe cases, can be treated with IL- 11 and TPO. Leukopenia is mild.
2, gastrointestinal reactions, nausea and vomiting have been constipation, etc., the degree of moderate.
3, fever, some patients with gemcitabine can occur drug fever, you can use diclofenac sodium to reduce fever, dexamethasone pretreatment. Others, such as renal impairment, are similar to the first program, and basically do not lose hair.
Fourth, cisplatin combined with fluorouracil (5-FU), the side effects of this chemotherapy regimen are as follows.
1, gastrointestinal reactions, cisplatin can cause nausea and vomiting, fluorouracil can cause diarrhea and other reactions.
2, skin pigmentation, because 5-FU has photosensitivity reactions.
In general, purple shirt drugs mainly cause side effects such as leukopenia, hair loss, hypotension, peripheral nerve damage, etc. Cisplatin can cause nausea and vomiting, kidney damage, hearing damage and other side effects, gemcitabine has fever, thrombocytopenia and other adverse reactions, and fluorouracil has diarrhea, skin pigmentation and other side effects. With appropriate prevention and treatment, patients can complete their treatment very smoothly.