Chemotherapy's Side Effects on Cancer Patients

Chemotherapy's Side Effects
on Cancer Patients

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Background..................................................................................................................................3
Aim..............................................................................................................................................3
Objective......................................................................................................................................3
Research Question.......................................................................................................................4
Significance and Purpose.............................................................................................................4
Literature Review............................................................................................................................4
Why chemotherapy is used to treat Cancer patients?..................................................................4
What are the side effects of chemotherapy on Cancer patients?.................................................5
How negative side effects impact the health and treatment of Cancer patient?..........................5

INTRODUCTION
Background
As the number of cancer patients in the world keeps on steadily increasing, healthcare
professionals around the world are steadily recommending increasing number of cancer patients
to undergo chemotherapy as a viable treatment method for countering cancer. Chemotherapy is a
cancer treatment method that makes use of singular or multiple anti cancer drugs with the
intention to either prolong the remaining life patient suffering from critical stages of cancer or to
cure patients in initial phases of cancer. The anti cancer drugs used in chemotherapy are designed
with the intention to introduce them directly into the patient’s blood stream so that the anti
cancer drugs can address cancer in the patient’s body irrespective of the anatomic location of the
cancer present over the patient’s body.
Though it has been proven that cancer can be treated effectively through the use of
chemotherapy method, chemotherapy treatment can also result in various side effects for the
patient such as immunosuppression which is the condition where the patient’s immune system
gets suppressed, which happens due to the paralysing of bone marrow, resulting in a reduction in
the patient’s red, white blood cells and platelets. As the immune system becomes suppressed, the
patient can suffer from Typhlitis, which is a condition where the patient’s intestine get infected
and presents itself through symptoms such as vomiting, nausea, diarrhoea, chills, fever etc. for
the patient. Other side effects of chemotherapy also include fatigue, vomiting, hair loss,
infertility, organ damage etc.
Aim
To evaluate the side effects of chemotherapy on Cancer patients.
Objective
To assess the effectiveness of chemotherapy method in treating Cancer patients.
To evaluate the side effects chemotherapy can have on cancer patients.