im reading that the most common treatment for leukemia is chemo.. what is that exactly?
can anyone give me information on what chemo is? what is the process? what problems do you experience? will i lose my hair? will i have to leave work? how long is this process? so many questions...
- wiz23
It's chemical drugs that kill cancer cells,but it also kills good cells including some around the scalp. This also weakens the body greatly,but
there are some nutrients that help fight the chemo. I would take Odwalla Superfood drink every day to help fight this and to fight the cancer. Also there is an herb called Pau D arco that is for lukemia. Ask your doctor.
Good luck! Find an hebalist if you want more info.
Edit: Whoever voted against me IS CLUELESS about this topic! EVERYTHING I said is 100% accurate! I know more about cancer than 99% of the population including most doctors.
- Hekate M
chemo is a radiation treatment. You might lose your hair, but you might not. chemo uses low doses of radiation to kill cancer cells in your body. Down side is that it kills good cells too. It might make you feel weak or sick. I dont know if you'll need to leave work or how long. Sorry. I hope you get better.
- Spreedog
Chemotherapy is NOT a radiation treatment. There are more than fifty chemotherapy drugs used to treat over 200 types of cancer. These are chemical agents usually given by vein to travel through the blood stream. They affect dividing cells - often killing both daughter cells in the process of replication (cell division). Malignancies such as leukemia are made up of cells that divide more often (not necessarily faster but more often) than normal cells, so the malignant cells are hit harder by chemotherapy drugs than most normal cells.
If you are going to be treated with chemotherapy, this should all be explained to you in great detail before your agree to treatment. Much of my time as a cancer chemotherapy specialist doctor was spent explaining these things to my patients.
We can't tell you what to expect with such limited information. We don't know what type of leukemia? Acute or chronic? Lymphocytic or myelocytic - and if myelocytic, which of the six or so types of acute myelocytic leukemia?
Make sure you have a lits of questions when you see the hematologist / oncologist specialty doctor. It is part of the job to explain this for each patient. Only the doctor knows all the details of the case and the specific plan of treatment.
- Joseph F
SpreeDog is absolutely right, chemotherapy is NOT a radiation treatment!
Chemotherapy is basically "controlled poisoning"; since what differentiates cancer cells from regular cells is the fact that they have a far higher rate of metabolism, if you carefully administer a targeted toxin to the cancer patient, it will kill the cancer cells much faster then it damages regular cells...
You MAY lose your hair (some do, some don't), but right now hair is the least of your problems! Depending on the chemo (which depends on your cancer), you may or may not need time off of work. Again, some people do, and some people don't.
The good news is that even though "cancer" is a horrible word, many cancers are now emminently treatable & manageable. Be brave, learn as much as you can, and don't sweat the small stuff!
Above all....ASK QUESTIONS! Ask anyone and everyone who might know, you'll be astonished by the number of people around you who have already been through what you are now having to put up with...
Cancer sucks, but you can beat it...
- A. M
Have a look ,at theis video on chemoherapy
http://www.cancervids.com/play.php?vid=159
Leukemia — Comprehensive overview covers symptoms, causes, risk factors, treatment of this blood-related cancer.
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