Side Effects of Chemotherapy in Cancer Patients and Evaluation of Patients Opinion about Starvation Based Differential Chemotherapy

Abstract

Side-effects associated with the cancer chemotherapy limit the scope of chemotherapeutic drugs and no data was available about these side effects in Pakistan. Moreover starvation based differential chemotherapy has been proved to greatly reduce the side effects of chemotherapy depending on starvation time. The current study was conducted to survey the common side effects of the chemotherapeutic drugs and the role of starvation to reduce them. The study included total 100 subjects with multiple carcinomas. A comprehensive questionnaire about starvation inquiry, chemotherapy side effects and their basic information was filled by interviewers as told by patients. There were 48% patients with breast cancer and 11% with uterine cancer. Out of these patients 30%, 28%, 9% and 9% patients were agreed to starve for 12, 24, 36 and 48 hours respectively. The survey regarding the side effects of chemotherapy showed that 43% patients were suffering from headache, fatigue 90%, weakness 95%, hair loss 76%, nausea 77%, vomiting 75%, diarrhea 31%, abdominal cramps 40%, mouth sores 47%, dry mouth 74%, memory impairment 14% and numbness 49%. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Pakistan. Only 18% of the total patients were agreed to starve for more than one day. Chemotherapy-associated side effects vary greatly and it does not depend upon cancer type. But these side effects depend on multiple factors such as the type and dose of chemotherapeutic drug, patient's health status and stage of cancer.

Bacillus spp.: Attractive Sources of Anti-cancer and Anti-proliferative Biomolecules

“…Although conventional treatments consisting of surgical resection, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are e ective in managing many of the patients (generally prolonged life or permanent cure of cancer), almost 50% of the cases are unmanageable. Also the side e ects such as pain, blood clots, fatigue, anemia, thrombocytopenia, constipation, diarrhea, or neurological complications and unpleasant to fatal infections are very o en accompanied by these treatments (Aslam et al, 2014).…”

Influence of Pharmacist Recommendations for Chemotherapy-Related Problems in Diabetic Cancer Patients

“…There was also a decrease (statistically non-significant) for mild mouth ulcers, moderate constipation and moderate diarrhea. As the duration of cancer and hence the chemotherapy cycles increases, the occurrence of some adverse drug effects also increases (27). The occurrence of ADRs may be related to patients' characteristics such as age, gender (females), polypharmacy, and co-morbidities.…”

“…A study by Huan-Keat Chan and Sabrina Ismail assessed the most common adverse effects occurred by chemotherapy administartion and reported that patients experienced (83.3%) nausea, (78.9%) vomiting, (23.3%) loss of appetite and (6.7%) peripheral neuropathies (31). The findings of a study by Muhammad Shahbaz Aslam showed that after chemotherapy administartion, the majority of patients were suffering from weakness (95%), fatigue (90%) nausea (77%), vomiting (75%) and numbness (49%) (27).…”

“…These results support the evidence that a cornerstone of a clinical pharmacist in oncology practice is to identify ADRs, record their frequencies, report factors that may increase their risks, solving and preventing of drug-related problems, and provision of information to the medical team to prevent future ADRs (32). A study by Huan-Keat Chan and Sabrina Ismail reported that majority of patients had a desire to receive more information about chemotherapyrelated adverse effects from the clinical pharmacists through oral conversation before chemotherapy treatment (27). Therefore, effective management of chemotherapy-related adverse effects is important to improve quality of life of patients, which may eventually influence their willingness to complete the treatment (14,33).…”

Dendrimers as Drug Nanocarriers: The Future of Gene Therapy and Targeted Therapies in Cancer

“…Current anticancer drugs often have a poor therapeutic index and they cause a lot of side effects [22]. A major concern is when the medications affect non-cancer cells, causing the adverse reduction of red and white blood cells, and affecting the gastrointestinal tract triggering nausea and diarrhea [23]. To reduce, or even better to avoid such side effects, the drug delivery to the tumor is optimized by preparing carriers containing an active agent associated with a molecule capable to accurately target cancer cells such as antibody drug conjugates (ADC) or nanoparticles [24][25][26].…”