Is chemotherapy vomiting really scary? Many patients and their families harbor a deep fear of chemotherapy, believing that it causes severe vomiting and is very painful. In fact, before the 1990s, chemotherapy was indeed a very painful thing. At that time, the dose of drugs was often increased to improve the efficacy, and central antiemetic drugs were not yet used, so the digestive tract reaction to chemotherapy was heavy, and patients often vomited a lot. In recent years, with the progress of medicine and pharmacology, many chemotherapeutic drugs with low toxicity and high efficiency have appeared on the one hand, and on the other hand, central antiemetic drugs such as pivotal dan, pivotal fenugreek, obe, ondansetron, etc. are widely used, and the chemotherapeutic reactions have been significantly reduced. Most of the currently used chemotherapy regimens produce only transient nausea and vomiting during the drug administration, which is quickly relieved by treatment. Some regimens even have no obvious GI reactions and can be applied to the elderly and frail people. What preparations should be made before chemotherapy? 1. It is psychological preparation. The formal chemotherapy program is formulated by the oncologist after systematically understanding the patient’s tumor, physical condition and past medical history, and is generally tolerable. Therefore, before chemotherapy, you should first eliminate the fear of chemotherapy, believe in yourself, believe in your doctor, and relax your body and mind to meet the treatment. It is important to know that tension and anxiety can cause psychogenic vomiting. In clinical practice, it is often seen that patients with a big grin and full of care tend to react lightly to chemotherapy, while nervous, anxious, depressed patients tend to react heavily and persistently. 2, to have a simple understanding of the toxic side effects of chemotherapy. You can ask the doctor in charge to understand what toxic side effects chemotherapy may produce and preventive and control measures, so that you can have a good idea of what to expect, so that you will not panic or delay treatment. Patients are not recommended to study the drug instructions, because the instructions are a kind of medical literature, patients or family members do not have systematic medical knowledge, can not be comprehensive analysis, it is easy to take out of context one-sided understanding. 3, to be prepared physically. Try to adjust your diet and sleep before chemotherapy, avoid colds, and meet the treatment in the best physical condition. What are the main toxic side effects of chemotherapy drugs? 1, nausea and vomiting: most chemotherapy drugs have, but the degree varies. Cisplatin (DDP), nitrogen mustard (HN2), adriamycin (ADM), epi-amycin (EPI) are relatively heavy, while mitomycin (MMC), bleomycin (BLM), paclitaxel (PTX), and tysodicty (TXT) are less likely to cause nausea and vomiting. 2. Myelosuppression: Most chemotherapeutic agents have it, among which paclitaxel (PTX), Tysodi (TXT), novobiocin (NVB), etoposide (VP-16), carboplatin (CBP), isocyclophosphamide (IFO), methotrexate (MTX), and adriamycin (ADM) are more obvious. Neutropenia in leukocytes generally occurs first, followed by thrombocytopenia. Mitomycin and Kenzyme can appear thrombocytopenia first. 3, diarrhea: platinum oxalate (L-OHP), Kepto (CPT-11), 5-FU, hydroxycamptothecin, Siroda may appear diarrhea. 4. Constipation: Norviben (NVB), vincristine (VCR), vincristine (VDS), and central antiemetics can cause constipation. 5, cardiotoxicity: Adriamycin (ADM), epi-adriamycin (EPI), pyrimethamine (THP), and paclitaxel (PTX) have cardiotoxicity, which can be clinically manifested as chest tightness, weakness, and arrhythmia. 6, hair loss: almost all chemotherapy drugs can lead to hair loss, but the severity of different, light only a small amount of hair loss, heavy can be completely lost. Adriamycin, epi-adriamycin, pyrimethamine, paclitaxel almost 100% lead to total hair loss. 7, pigmentation: 5-FU, bleomycin, pinyamycin can lead to pigmentation in the skin and nail bed deposition, appearing as darkened skin or darkened nails. 8, neurotoxicity: platinum oxalate, norviben, paclitaxel, Tysodi, vincristine, etoposide (VP-16) can produce peripheral neurotoxicity, patients feel numbness in the hands or feet, muscle pain in the extremities, and some people have numbness in the lips and tongue, and very few people can have tightness in the throat and difficulty in whistling. 9, liver and kidney function damage: almost all chemotherapy drugs need to be metabolized by the liver and excreted by the kidneys, so they may damage liver and kidney function. There are also some rare toxic side effects such as allergy, rash, central neurotoxicity, etc. Why should chemotherapy patients have frequent blood tests? Some patients do not understand this and think, “My blood is fine, why do I need to check it?”
In fact, frequent blood tests are very necessary. Many chemotherapy regimens nowadays have myelosuppression, which is mainly manifested by a decrease in white blood cells (mainly neutrophils), and in some cases, a decrease in platelets. Usually, there is a tendency for the white blood cells to decline from day 1 of chemotherapy until day 14 (or even day 20 in some regimens), and the bone marrow is in a suppressed state. Generally 4.0×109/L> leukocytes ≥ 3.0×109/L is called degree I leukopenia, 3.0×109/L> leukocytes ≥ 2.0×109/L is degree II, 2.0×109/L> leukocytes ≥ 1.0×109/L is degree III, leukocytes