Is chemotherapy a blessing or a curse? Why?

Chemotherapy is a double-edged sword, while killing tumor cells, it will also have certain side effects on the normal human body. Therefore, it is important to weigh the pros and cons. Chemotherapy is strongly recommended for those who deserve it, and for those who don't, it is strongly discouraged. As a doctor, I found that both situations exist, some patients do not need chemotherapy, but some doctors and the patient's family are not too assured, insist on chemotherapy, in fact, belongs to the transition of the treatment, did not get the benefits, but instead bring a series of side effects.

On the contrary, there are some patients, obviously need chemotherapy, but the patients and their families strongly refused, this is also not right, easy to recurrence and metastasis after surgery.

Here I will say, which patients do not need chemotherapy:

First, early cancer does not need chemotherapy

Early cancer, the tumor cells are only in the local growth, did not spread to distant places, only need to be resected on it, do not need chemotherapy. For example, Stage 1, and Stage 2 colorectal cancer without high risk factors, do not need chemotherapy after surgery.

Secondly, tumors that are not sensitive to chemotherapy do not need chemotherapy

There are some tumors that are not sensitive to chemotherapy at all, and it is useless for you to fight with chemotherapy, which can't kill the cancer cells at all. For example: differentiated thyroid cancer, liver cancer (systemic chemotherapy is useless), gastrointestinal mesenchymal tumors and so on.

Third, the body can not tolerate the patient, can not be chemotherapy

Physical condition is too weak, liver and kidney function is not good, the bone marrow serious inhibition of the patient, can not be chemotherapy, because their bodies can not withstand chemotherapy. Before chemotherapy, we have a scoring criteria, the physical condition must reach a certain condition before chemotherapy.

So, chemotherapy is a blessing for some patients, to prolong life and relieve pain. For some patients, chemotherapy is a curse, they don't need it or can't afford it.

For some patients are afraid of chemotherapy, but for some patients, chemotherapy is actually a very happy thing. Because the ability to radiotherapy actually shows that there is a chance to save, and if even the opportunity to radiotherapy are not, that is to go home and wait for the end of time.

But it's not that radiotherapy can cure cancer, if we don't have a better response to radiotherapy, to reduce the side effects, it will make the efficacy of chemotherapy decline ~ so there are some people who wonder, chemotherapy is not a poison that harms people?

Is chemotherapy a life-saving or harmful treatment?

Cancer patients can chemotherapy is also a kind of "blessing"

4 types of chemotherapy: alkylating agents (chlorobarbital), plant alkaloids (actinomycin D), antimetabolites (purine antagonists), anti-tumor antibiotics (adriamycin).

Chemotherapeutic agents enter the body and can spread throughout the body, so they can be utilized whether or not the cancer has spread. The functions of chemotherapy are as follows:

1. Inhibit the division of cancer cells

2. Induce the cancer cells to commit suicide

3. Cut off the nutritional supply of the cancer cells, which is mainly to cut off the enzymes and hormones needed by the cancer cells

4. Block the growth of tumor blood vessels, and starve the cancer cells to death

5.

5. Cut off the blood and oxygen supply to the cancer cells (there are still questions in the medical field)

Chemotherapy drugs are similar, but everyone's physique is different, which leads to a different response to chemotherapy, and the local medical conditions will affect the final treatment results.

Clinically, there are many patients who have suffered a significant deterioration in their health after chemotherapy, and this is because chemotherapeutic drugs can sometimes be "indistinguishable from each other", and can have a very strong effect on healthy cells, which can lead to the side effects of chemotherapy.

When it comes to the side effects of chemotherapy, there are many, including hair loss, nausea and vomiting, hearing loss, low resistance, anemia, and so on.

Chemotherapy is actually more of a life-saving treatment, and the side effects of chemotherapy can be dealt with by finding ways to address the range of side effects, such as adjusting the dosage, changing the medication, and so on.

The treatment of chemotherapy side effects

First, low resistance (low white blood cell count)

Chemotherapy basically brings about a decline in the body's white blood cells, which leads to a decline in the body's immunity. And if the white blood cells are not elevated, the effect of chemotherapy is greatly reduced or even counterproductive. Therefore, patients should promptly increase the number of white blood cells:

Nutritional supplementation: first of all, be sure to supplement more selenium, vitamin E, carotene and other foods. These foods are essential nutrients to ensure the recovery of white blood cells, you can supplement some malt selenium vitamin e tablets to supplement, this is a nutrient combination, every morning and evening once a day on the line, to replenish the number of white blood cells, improve immunity. Of course, you can also eat some kiwi, carrots, milk and so on.

Treatment of wounds: if accidentally bruised, need to be sterilized as soon as possible to prevent bacteria from entering the skin. And chemotherapy patients need to be treated immediately once an infection occurs.

Second, anemia (low blood erythrocyte content)

Red blood cells are responsible for sparing oxygen to the body tissues, and the low level of red blood cells will lead to insufficient oxygen supply to the tissues, and the person will feel fatigue, shortness of breath and palpitations, and can't escape from anemia. If the anemia is too severe, an emergency blood transfusion may be necessary, and the medication can take erythropoietin (EPO), a drug that boosts the body's production of red blood cells.

For food, you can eat more green leafy vegetables, beans, apricots and raisins.

Third, bleeding (low platelet content)

It is also known as thrombocytopenia, and platelets are used for blood clotting, if the platelet content is insufficient, it may lead to abnormal coagulation, such as nosebleeds, bleeding gums, and so on, and usually the blood will flow.

To reduce the risk of bleeding, minimize the use of blade razors and replace them with electric shavers.

The choice of toothbrush, try to use a soft-bristled toothbrush, in life, the use of sharp objects must be careful, or better yet, wear gloves to prevent injury.

Chemotherapy will be the "chemical down", the side effects are particularly violent. This concept is wrong! Xiao Jiawen, director of the Second Department of Oncology, Shenyang Fifth People's Hospital, analyzed it for you.

Chemotherapy is only used when necessary, and you should trust the judgment of your doctor in this regard.

Many patients and their families hold the view that the dose of chemotherapy should be reduced. In fact, there is a clear relationship between the intensity of the chemotherapy dose and patient survival. Insufficient dose not only can not effectively treat cancer, but also cause patients to decline in survival, so ensure that the dose is a must.

"Chemo down", "put down", this is the patients and families cognitive misunderstanding. In the treatment of cancer, new drugs are emerging, and the side effects are not as great as imagined. Moreover, it is still worthwhile for patients to face chemotherapy side effects in order to get long-term survival and benefit on a larger level.

New drugs to deal with adverse effects are also playing an increasing role.

Thirty or forty years ago, it was almost impossible to see a patient holding a basin and vomiting. Drugs to stop vomiting came out in many varieties. Protective agents for the gastric mucosa, heart, liver, and kidneys also have a lot of room for choice, and chemotherapy can achieve a smooth transition.

In addition to the prejudice against chemotherapy, there are some patients who believe that after getting cancer to eat less, to starve the cancer cells! This concept is also wrong!

Nutritional assurance is important for patients.

However, eating well will help the cancer cells grow faster, and the idea of eating less and not eating at all to starve the cancer cells to death is widely spread.

In fact, only to ensure adequate nutrition, chemotherapy and radiotherapy can keep up, otherwise the individual has not yet overcome the cancer, the body collapsed. If you can't keep up with the nutritional status, you can't treat it effectively.

500 famous doctors in Liaoshen, you and your family's online health think tank!

I am the founder of Chinese non-pharmacological therapy, chemotherapy is a blessing or a curse? This issue is certainly very controversial, we have to calm down and understand, each chemotherapy, and chemotherapy before the comparison, your condition is better or worse to understand, watched a lot of young people do chemotherapy after the video, do not know what to say to them to be good.

First of all, we have to figure out the question, is chemotherapy a cure or a disease? This should be very obvious, is the cure, because its purpose is to kill cancer cells, which is not wrong, the wrong is, chemotherapy this means, and not only kill cancer cells, even our immune forces also killed together, can be said to be unscrupulous, although the effect of seeing is that the cancer cells killed a lot of many, but our only immune system also completely collapsed, the consequences of this would be unimaginable ah.

With high blood pressure to take antihypertensive drugs is different, and with diabetes to take glucose-lowering drugs is also different, antihypertensive drugs and glucose-lowering drugs, although it is also the treatment of the symptoms, but after all, it is still quite mild, and chemotherapy drugs is sinister, so antihypertensive drugs and glucose-lowering drugs are similar to the warm water boiled frogs, we do not feel so obvious, but chemotherapy is to directly put the frogs in the hot water to boil, of course, it will be obvious.

I have repeatedly called for a city in China to pilot a ban on allopathic treatments such as radiotherapy and surgery for cancer patients, and I can guarantee that the cancer mortality rate in this city will drop by more than 40% immediately.

Chemotherapy is a blessing.

But when it comes to specific patients, it needs to be analyzed more carefully. It is not only about the effectiveness of the treatment but also about the financial costs, so that the blessing of the individual can be the exact opposite of the blessing of the whole.

Chemotherapy is an important tool in the fight against tumors. Before chemotherapy, there was no treatment for all non-solid tumors, such as leukemia, where the patient had to wait to die, and die really quickly.

Chemotherapy was used to treat tumors, starting with hematologic tumors, i.e. leukemia.

From having to wait to die to having medication that could save lives or greatly extend them, that's how chemotherapy's reputation was opened. Today the treatment of leukemia is quite effective, 90% of patients can survive without any problems, while once upon a time it was 100% who would die very quickly, a difference that is not too much to say that it is an elixir.

The recent movie, I'm Not the God of Medicine, mentioned imatinib (trade name Gleevec) is a miracle drug for chronic granulocytic leukemia. So, would you say chemotherapy is a blessing or a curse?

And for solid tumors, patients who can be operated on, it depends on luck, because the cancer, if it has metastasized, even with surgery, the cancer will soon recur in other parts of the body, and it is just like growing mushrooms, not one place, but multiple places, it is simply not possible to go through the surgical way, in the removal, the patient once recurrence is also very quickly die. Later, radiation therapy was added to the mix, and was effective for some patients, but the effect was weak, which had a lot to do with the lack of deep understanding of tumors at that time. Today, the effect of radiation therapy has been enhanced, and has become an important adjunct to the treatment of certain tumors, and even in parts of the body that cannot be used for surgery, radiation therapy has a unique advantage.

Once chemotherapy made a big name for itself in the treatment of leukemia, drug companies began to develop other drugs to try to get into the treatment of solid tumors as important adjuncts to kill tumors that had metastasized out but hadn't really started to grow wildly. This therapeutic strategy has yielded good results in a wide range of tumors, thus greatly extending the lives of many tumor patients, but there are still some roadblocks, such as triple-negative breast cancer, mid- to late-stage lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and so on.

Let's hope for better drugs. In the meantime, let's pray that we have the money to afford these drugs.

Is chemotherapy a blessing or a curse? Why?

I'm afraid, it takes a person, to really know the answer!

First, from the medical and doctor's point of view, half a century ago, there is no chemotherapy drugs and programs, cancer patients do not get effective treatment, only death. Now, with chemotherapeutic drugs and mature programs, cancer patients have hope for life. Clinically, some of the timely detected and early stage cancers are completely cured and cancer-free through special means such as surgery + radiotherapy and so on. Obviously, this type of chemotherapy, certainly a blessing!

Let's not talk about the fact that there are so many celebrities in the world who have gotten cancer and have been cured by systematic chemotherapy.

I have treated many cancer patients in the clinic, such as early lung cancer, breast cancer, and now more than ten years later, there is no recurrence, they live well! The first thing you need to do is to get your hands dirty.

Second, from the perspective of patients and their families, in addition to a small number of cancer patients, through the means of surgery + radiotherapy, to get a clinical cure, the majority of cancer patients, because of such and such a reason, such as the discovery of too late has been late, can not tolerate chemotherapy and give up, the economic conditions to keep up with the failure of chemotherapy treatment is not ideal, or even failure.

At best, it improves patients' quality of life and prolongs their survival.

Especially for the patient's family, when their loved ones with cancer have passed away, calm down, think carefully, the money spent, the crime suffered, the person did not feel chemotherapy is not worth it, chemotherapy is a "disaster".

I am often in the street, met some of the former patient's family, a few months, a few years in the past, they have been from that kind of tension, anxiety, pain, helplessness, and even madness, irrationality, out of the state. Listening to their views again, they all agree that chemotherapy, in the first place, was not a wise move. Perhaps, without chemotherapy, loved ones live longer.

Obviously, chemotherapy is a blessing or a curse? Clinically, in life, there is no standard, the only answer! We can only say that specific problems, specific analysis, specific solutions.

It is recommended that ------ patients, families, oncologists, together, realistic, rational, understanding of the premise, the development of scientific and reasonable program.

Against ------ doctor's self-assertion, too much family intervention, patients confused.

Especially against ------ heard who who is a "miracle doctor", with a prescription, "cured" a cancer patient. The first time I saw this, I was able to see a lot of people who had been in the hospital for a long time, and I was able to see a lot of people who had been in the hospital for a long time. The first step is to make sure that you have a good understanding of what is going on in the world and what is happening in the world!

Any kind of treatment has its own value, otherwise it would have been eliminated.

Chemotherapy as a killing treatment, so far, still has an irreplaceable role, which is often questioned, because of chemotherapy side effects, in the process of treatment will bring a certain degree of side damage to the patient. But as an important tool in the field of human anti-tumor therapy, the introduction of chemotherapy is certainly a blessing, not a gain.

First, postoperative chemotherapy can effectively reduce the recurrence rate

Most of the postoperative cancers with late staging require chemotherapy, which is designed to further kill the cancer cells that may remain and reduce the recurrence rate. Clinical studies over the years have proved that the risk of recurrence is reduced in patients who have undergone chemotherapy at a later stage than those who have not.

Second, in advanced patients, chemotherapy can control tumor progression

Many chemo-sensitive advanced cancers, after chemotherapy, the tumor will be significantly reduced, these visible effects, nothing can be questioned, and with the entry of powerful drugs to combat the side effects of the clinic, the majority of patients on the side effects of chemotherapy can be tolerated.

Third, the tumor that is extremely sensitive to chemotherapy is expected to be cured by chemotherapy alone

Choriocarcinoma (choriocarcinoma) before the introduction of chemotherapy, the mortality rate can basically reach 100%, since the introduction of chemotherapy, even if it is the choriocarcinoma with multiple metastases, after the systematic chemotherapy, the purpose of cure can be achieved. Choriocarcinoma has also become the first cancer that can be cured by chemotherapy alone. In addition, some lymphomas, testicular spermatogonial tumors, etc., many of them can also be cured by chemotherapy alone.

In conclusion, chemotherapy has a large number of side effects, but this does not negate the benefits that chemotherapy has brought to mankind.

This question is like asking: is the knife a blessing or a curse? The answer, of course, is that it is both a blessing and a curse, depending on how you use it. If you use it well, it helps you to do things and become a good helper in life; if you don't use it well, it becomes a tool to hurt and even kill people.

Chemotherapy is also so ah (in fact, other treatment is not the same?). There are two sides to everything), if your cancer your condition, need chemotherapy, then chemotherapy for you, is a blessing, it can eliminate or control the cancer in your body, no chemotherapy, cancer cells in your body loss of generation, may soon kill you. For example, choriocarcinoma, if you don't have chemotherapy in time, the mortality rate is extremely high, and if you standardize chemotherapy in time, most of them can be cured, so you can see that, in this case, chemotherapy is a great blessing, even though it has side-effects, but it's all worth the effort.

If you don't need chemotherapy, or the cancer you have is not sensitive to chemotherapy, or your physical condition is already too poor to withstand chemotherapy, this time, the former do not go to chemotherapy, the latter to be careful with chemotherapy (in some cases can still be considered).

In short, whether chemotherapy is a blessing or a blessing depends on: the sensitivity of your cancer to chemotherapy; the stage of your cancer; your physical condition; and whether the doctors and nurses in the hospital where you are treated know how to use chemotherapy. ...... Reasonable use of chemotherapy is better than the harm it can do, or else it will be a curse.

Hello.

I believe that many people on the word "chemotherapy" itself has a bad impression, and even more than one person curious about "found out that the cancer before living well, why chemotherapy not long, people died?

Let me talk to you briefly.

Chemotherapy is a treatment that uses chemicals to stop the growth and metastasis of cancer cells until they are finally eliminated. It can be said that both postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy and preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy (which refers to systemic chemotherapy done before the implementation of localized treatments) have done their part to help us defeat tumors.

However, since the major difference between cancer cells and normal cells lies in the rapid cell division and growth, anticancer drugs usually work by interfering with the mechanism of cell division to inhibit the growth of cancer cells, for example, to inhibit the replication of DNA or to prevent chromosome segregation. Since conventional chemotherapy is mostly non-selective, it can also affect our normal cells. But it is important to be clear about the concept that it is not the chemotherapy but the cancer itself that kills cancer patients who receive chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy is just a treatment used to kill cancer cells. Of course, it is not alarming to say that some chemotherapeutic drugs kill cancer cells and promote metastasis at the same time.

In 2017, scientists found that the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel increased the likelihood of a metastatic microenvironment, which in turn promoted breast cancer metastasis. A month later, another researcher, Tsonwin Hai, found that in addition to helping cancer cells escape from the primary site, paclitaxel in chemotherapy drugs also acts directly on the lungs, altering the lung microenvironment and helping cancer cells colonize the lungs.

Recently, Ioanna Keklikoglou and Michele De Palma at the école Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne found another mechanism by which paclitaxel promotes tumor metastasis. They found that paclitaxel and adriamycin, commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs, can promote the release of exosomes from tumors, altering the microenvironment in the lungs and promoting breast cancer lung metastasis. The related paper is published in Nature Cell Biology.

In spite of this, we can not deny the effectiveness of chemotherapy in the treatment of cancer, when choosing treatment, the most critical thing is to believe in the level of modern medical treatment, go to the regular hospital to receive treatment from doctors.

One of the most important means of cancer medicine today, killing cancer cells while killing normal cells, cannot be avoided! Some chemotherapy drugs can really kill and control cancer cells, thus prolonging the survival time, but no matter how to control the cancer cells, long-term chemotherapy is basically a dead end! Chemotherapy drugs can cause major organs of the body to fail and cause death! The pain and harm caused by chemotherapy is unimaginable to outsiders! Cancer patients three major causes of death: a death of fear, death of despair (no money for treatment, worried about the death of the family) three toxic death (chemotherapy to organ failure) the remaining point may be for the death of cancer!

The physically weak can not speak lightly of chemotherapy, in general, I personally think that chemotherapy is more of a curse than a blessing.