Chemotherapy is one of the main treatment methods of cancer patients. It can be used both as an independent technique and as a part of complex treatment programs. The basis of chemotherapy is the use of drugs that can destroy malignant cells, slow down their growth or block the process of their division and reproduction.
According to action principle, all drugs for chemotherapy can be conditionally divided into:
- cytostatic – they stop cells division, disrupt their functioning, which ultimately leads to the death of malignant cells and a decrease in the size of tumor itself;
- cytotoxic – they negatively affect the DNA inside tumor cells, causing their rapid and immediate death.
Chemotherapy has a systemic effect. The drugs act not only on cancer cells, but also on healthy cells of the body, especially those that divide rapidly. This is the reason for the known side effects of chemotherapy. In order to reduce the degree of manifestation of these undesirable effects, chemotherapist carefully selects drugs and their combinations taking into account modern treatment protocols, combines chemotherapy courses with other drugs application (for example, antiemetics) so that patient tolerates the course of treatment satisfactorily, carefully selects the dosage and regimen of polychemotherapy.
How is the chemotherapy session passes?
Maimonides Medical Center employs only experienced oncologists and chemotherapists who can provide the patient with a comfortable, safe and successful course of polychemotherapy of any complexity level (I, II, III).
The session of polychemotherapy takes place in conditions of the day hospital in Maimonides Medical Center. Each patient is allocated a separate comfortable ward with everything necessary. After completing drugs administration, patient should be under supervision of medical personnel for some time. If there are no complaints and he is feeling well, he is sent home.
The protocol of polychemotherapy is developed by attending physician, according to modern treatment standards of oncological diseases. An oncologist or chemotherapist can change the dosage of some drugs or the mode of their administration, based on individual characteristics of each patient (height, weight, presence of concomitant diseases, general state of health, etc.).
Types of chemotherapy
Depending on chemotherapy aim, the combination of drugs and other treatment methods application, the following are distinguished:
- Adjuvant – a course of chemotherapy is carried out after surgery to remove the tumor, the main aim of such treatment is to destroy all cancer cells that may have remained after the surgery.
- Neoadjuvant – drugs are administered before surgery, the aim is to reduce the size of tumor so that the surgeon can remove it completely and not damage the surrounding healthy tissues.
- Induction – when chemotherapy is the main method of treatment, and others (surgery, radiation therapy) cannot be used for various reasons.
- Palliative – used in the case of a widespread tumor process, when full-fledged treatment is impossible, with the aim of controlling the disease, prolonging the duration and improving the patient's quality of life.
In our medical center, you can receive all the listed types of chemotherapy, depending on the purpose of treatment and the appointments of attending physician.
How are chemotherapy drugs administered?
There are many administering methods of chemotherapy drugs, depending on the main diagnosis: intravenously, intraarterially, orally (in the form of tablets by mouth), locally (for example, applications in malignant skin lesions), intrathecally (into the spinal canal), intraperitoneally (into the abdominal cavity), etc.
But most often, the systemic intravenous administration of drugs is used. At Maimonides Medical Center, a patient can receive all the necessary manipulations for intravenous administration of chemotherapy drugs: delivery of an intravenous catheter, an infusion port, and an infusion set.
Surgeons of our clinic can install a special port system for multiple infusions in such patients. This will prevent possible complications of multiple intravenous infusions of drugs, and will also make the course of chemotherapy more comfortable for patient. Maimonides Clinic is one of a few in Ukraine where such infusion port systems are implanted. In our medical center installation of ports is carried out by experienced surgeons in conditions of a sterile, modern operating room under short-term intravenous anesthesia, which meets the requirements of international standards.
We recommend infusion port system implantation to all our oncology patients before the start of treatment to ensure a comfortable and painless administration of chemotherapy drugs.
You can find out more detailed information about conducting courses of polychemotherapy I, II, III levels of complexity in our medical center by calling the phones and contacts indicated on this website.
