Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Delhi, India

Apart from adjuvant chemotherapy, adjuvant treatments include:

• Targeted Therapy: This therapy is recommended for cancer cells with specific mutations or aberrations.
• Immunotherapy: The therapy is used to improve and help the immune system recognise and attack the cancer cells.
• Hormone Therapy: The treatment is used for hormone receptor-positive cancers.
• Radiation Therapy: This treatment uses high-energy beams to target the affected part/organ to kill cancer or tumour cells.

Adjuvant chemotherapy is recommended if a person has the following:

• Locally advanced cancer.
• Aggressive cancers with a high risk of recurrence after primary surgery.
• Cancer that responds to chemotherapy drugs.
• Cancer when found in lymph nodes.
• An inherited genetic mutation causes a high risk of cancer recurrence.

All these factors play an important role in deciding if adjuvant chemotherapy/ Targeted/Immunotherapy and Hormone therapy can be beneficial to an extent.

Adjuvant chemotherapy is commonly recommended for cancer or tumours that are at a locally advanced stage or have spread widely to other parts of the body.

Chemotherapy can cause certain side effects, and this treatment may not be beneficial to everyone in the early stages of cancer. The factors that determine the effectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy include:

• Type of cancer/tumour: Adjuvant chemotherapy is highly effective for certain types of cancer, such as colon cancer and breast cancer. For a few types of cancer, this therapy may not be beneficial, e.g. kidney cancer or primary Liver cancer.
• Stage of cancer/tumour: The stage of cancer plays an important role. Some of the cancers in an early stage may not require chemotherapy as the side effects outweigh the benefits.

If cancer is in a locally advanced stage and has spread to nearby lymph nodes, adjuvant chemotherapy can be highly beneficial.

Adjuvant chemotherapy uses chemical drugs to kill cancer or tumour cells. They include:

• Carboplatin
• Doxorubicin
• Epirubicin
• 5-fluorouracil
• Capecitabine
• Cyclophosphamide etc.

Chemotherapy or adjuvant chemotherapy can cause many potential side effects.

The side effects can vary from drug to drug, depending on the type, stage, and spread of cancer.

Chemotherapy treatment involves chemical drugs that attack fast-growing cells, such as cancer cells, but sometimes they may attack and destroy healthy fast-growing cells, too.

If healthy cells are damaged in the process, they can cause side effects such as:

• Nausea and vomiting
• Hair loss
• Fatigue and weakness
• Dry mouth and mouth sores
• Bleeding and bruising
• Infection
• Loss of appetite
• Weight loss
• Anaemia
• Constipation & diarrhoea.
• Numbness or tingling or nerve pain.
• Urine and bladder conditions or problems.
• Changes in skin and nails.
• Mood swings, mood changes, and stress.
• Changes in daily functioning and sexual desire<./li>
• Loss of concentration and focus.
• Low count of white blood cells.

Side effects of chemotherapy vary from person to person. A patient may experience few of the given side effects or no side effects at all.

Few of the side effects can be prevented. The doctor can prescribe medications along with the treatment to prevent most of the side effects.

Apart from short-term side effects, adjuvant chemotherapy can cause a few long-term side effects, such as:

• Nerve damage: The drug used for adjuvant chemotherapy can damage the nerves in the arms, hands, feet, and legs. It may sometimes result in nerve pain or burning and tingling sensations and cause weakness.
• Myelodysplastic syndrome: It is caused when there is a disruption in the production of red blood cells.
• Increased risk of leukaemia: Few chemotherapy drugs, such as doxorubicin, etoposide, etc., may cause bone marrow diseases such as dysplastic syndrome or can result in acute leukaemia.

The success rate for adjuvant chemotherapy depends on several factors, such as the underlying health conditions, type of cancer, the stage of cancer or tumour age of the patient, and the spread of cancer in other body parts.

Adjuvant chemotherapy can kill remaining cancer cells, lowering the risk of Cancer recurrence and increasing the lifespan.