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As a clinician in medical oncology, not only in work, but also many oncology patients who come to us for consultation have a lot of concerns and worries about chemotherapy. In our daily life, we see many articles about chemotherapy in our WeChat friends circle, such as “chemotherapy is a lie of doctors”, “chemotherapy makes cancer patients die faster” and so on. Is chemotherapy really that mysterious? Today we will unveil the mystery of chemotherapy.
What is chemotherapy?
In a broad sense, any chemical drug used to treat a disease can be called chemotherapy. However, when we talk about chemotherapy, it usually refers to the use of chemical drugs in treating cancer.
Why can chemotherapy treat cancer?
Chemotherapy drugs are medically called “cytotoxic drugs”, as the name implies, they are drugs that are toxic to cells. The essence of cancer is the uncontrolled and crazy growth of cells, so “cytotoxic drugs” are highly toxic to these crazy cells and kill them. Therefore, it is not too much to say that chemotherapy drugs are “poisonous”.
Although chemotherapy drugs are powerfully toxic, cancer cells grow faster than normal cells and are therefore more likely to be “poisoned”. Unfortunately, chemotherapeutic drugs do not have the ability to distinguish between the “enemy and me”, so normal cells can also be “mistakenly injured”, especially bone marrow cells and hair cells, which are also fast-growing cells, are more likely to be “shot”. “The cells of bone marrow and hair cells, which are also fast-growing, are especially vulnerable.
How does chemotherapy work?
Some people ask me: Does chemotherapy involve getting into a special apparatus and staying in it for a whole day?
Some people ask me: Does chemotherapy require the whole family to go out and be scared like an enemy?
In fact, chemotherapy is as simple as an ordinary injection and infusion. Some chemotherapy drugs are even just a small pill, a sip of water, and that’s it.
Is chemotherapy an “ineffective and harmful” treatment or not?
Many friends have forwarded articles about chemotherapy “poisoning the public” and accused chemotherapy of being an ineffective treatment and a big lie. Here, I want to cry out for chemotherapy!
Although chemotherapy can also damage normal cells, the merits of chemotherapy in treating cancer cannot be dismissed, and the accusation that chemotherapy is ineffective is the real big lie. Cancers are not equally sensitive to chemotherapy. Some cancers are highly sensitive to chemotherapy, such as choriocarcinoma in gynecology and acute lymphoblastic leukemia in pediatrics. These types of cancers can be cured by chemotherapy! Cure! (Look carefully, it’s a cure!) (See clearly, it is a cure!) . In the days when chemotherapy was not available, the mortality rate for choriocarcinoma was 90%; today, the survival rate for choriocarcinoma is 90%. There are other examples, such as germ cell tumors, where patients have survived long term only with the development of chemotherapy.
There are also tumors where chemotherapy does not cure them, but chemotherapy can control the symptoms. For example, there are cancer patients who grow a lot of water in their stomach (ascites) and are in great pain. This time, chemotherapy can reduce the production of ascites and make the patient more comfortable. Some tumors are too large to be removed by surgery, so chemotherapy can be used first to shrink the tumor and then surgery can be done.
It is clear that chemotherapy is not a “scam” at all, but a treatment method that has been proven to be effective in numerous medical practices.
What are the disadvantages and drawbacks of chemotherapy?
Some people may say that doctors seem to blow chemotherapy out of proportion, so does chemotherapy have no drawbacks at all? Of course not!
First of all, some tumors are not sensitive to chemotherapy, or chemotherapy is not effective. First of all, some tumors are not sensitive to chemotherapy, or chemotherapy is ineffective. At this time, chemotherapy should not be used freely.
Chemotherapy is actually a process of “killing 3,000 enemies and damaging 800 oneself”. Therefore, chemotherapy must be about indications, and patients should be evaluated before chemotherapy can be done. For patients whose physical conditions do not allow it, do not blindly chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy can cause side effects such as white blood cell drop, thrombocytopenia, anemia, hair loss, etc. Some chemotherapy drugs may cause severe allergic reactions, so the administration of chemotherapy must be done under the supervision of an experienced doctor. When the side effects of chemotherapy are obvious, chemotherapy should not be reluctantly administered.
In short, chemotherapy is a double-edged sword. If you use it well, you can kill more enemies, but if you don’t, you can hurt yourself! The medical profession is also constantly working to develop a new generation of chemotherapy drugs with low toxicity and high efficiency. I believe that in the future, chemotherapy, the veteran of the fight against cancer, will be able to glow with a new luster!