Cancer is an important health and life problem with increasing prevalence in the world. It ranks second after cardiovascular diseases among life-threatening diseases. The most common cancers in our country are breast, thyroid, intestinal, uterine and lung cancers in women and lung, prostate, intestinal, bladder and stomach cancers in men.
The diagnosis and treatment of cancer should be carried out multidisciplinarily with the cooperation of many specialties. Oncology, one of these specialties, deals with chemotherapy applications, which means the treatment of cancer with medication. In the medical oncology departments of Memorial Health Group Oncology centers; chemotherapies, targeted smart drugs and molecules, hormonotherapy and immunotherapies and biological therapies are performed in cancer treatment.
Unlike conventional chemotherapies, smart drugs, which aim to provide comfort today, are applied individually. While chemotherapy is used to shrink the tumor before surgery or for preventive purposes after surgery, it can also be preferred before or after radiotherapy, which is one of the local treatment methods, or both together. Chemotherapy is a specialty as it is performed with cytotoxic drugs. It is based on the principle that the drug treatment to be applied in effective doses is applied by controlling the side effects that may occur in the patient at the same time.
Treatment methods applied in the Medical Oncology department:
What is chemotherapy?
Chemotherapy is the treatment of a tumor with medication. It is a very important part of tumor treatment along with surgery and radiotherapy. Chemotherapy is used to kill tumor cells or stop the tumor from growing. Sometimes a single drug, sometimes several drugs are administered in various ways.
Who Administers Chemotherapy?
The branch of science that deals with chemotherapy is called “Medical Oncology” or “Medical Oncology” and the doctor working in this field is called “Medical Oncologist”. Medical oncology is a separate specialty; a medical oncologist is an internal medicine specialist who specializes in tumor treatment. Tumor treatment is a team work and must be performed in centers where all members of this team are present. This team should include a surgeon specialized in tumor surgery, a radiation oncologist for radiotherapy, and a medical oncologist for chemotherapy and patient care (supportive care).
What is the purpose of chemotherapy?
Chemotherapy may be administered for different reasons, depending on the type of tumor and the characteristics of the patient.
- To completely destroy the tumor and cure the patient,
- To prevent the tumor from spreading,
- To stop or slow the growth of the tumor,
- Chemotherapy is used to relieve the symptoms caused by the tumor.
Although it is an effective treatment method, in some cases it may not completely destroy the tumor but only improve the symptoms and make it easier to live comfortably. For some tumors, chemotherapy is the only treatment. In others, chemotherapy is administered in combination with other treatments (surgery and radiotherapy), either sequentially or simultaneously. For example, chemotherapy may be given before surgery to shrink the tumor and after surgery to prevent its spread. The same applications can be performed before and after radiotherapy, or chemotherapy can be administered simultaneously with radiotherapy using various methods.
What is the frequency and duration of chemotherapy?
The duration and frequency of treatment depends on the chemotherapy scheme that is specifically selected according to the disease and the patient’s condition. The duration and frequency can be changed by the doctor according to the response obtained with the treatment and the side effects that occur. Generally, the most common intervals are 3 or 4 weeks, but some treatment schemes also include weekly or biweekly treatments.
The most important, even vital, point about the timing of chemotherapy is that the treatment should be as regular as possible and as timely as side effects allow. If treatment intervals are unnecessarily prolonged, the tumor is at risk of recovering and becoming resistant to the drugs, thus becoming stronger. In this way, the tumor continues to grow and spread, and the chance of treatment success decreases. Patients should never go beyond the recommendations of their doctor regarding chemotherapy appointments.
- Before discontinuing treatment for any reason, talk to your doctor, explain your problems and ask for help.
- Be sure to follow the treatment schedule. Never change your treatment day on your own initiative on the grounds that you are not feeling well.
- Make sure you take the medicines you have to use at home.
- Otherwise, you may face treatment failures due to incomplete treatment.
Where is chemotherapy administered?
Chemotherapy must be administered in centers where people trained in this field work. It should never be administered in a hospital or at home by a healthcare professional who has no experience in chemotherapy without the knowledge and permission of the doctor.