Chemotherapy Side Effects
& Cancer Research Updates

Cancer can be devastating and chemotherapy side effects can make you feel even worse. The silver lining though is that, if caught early enough, a lot of cancers are treatable. Not just that, but there is a lot of cancer research being conducted to help try to find even more and better cures for the various cancers in all their stages. When a family member of friend is diagnosed with cancer everyone is impacted because this is a potentially life-altering event. According to the American Cancer Society, here is a list of "do's" and "don't's" of how you should respond, react and relate to this event in a loved one's life:

Do's:

• Acknowledge the situation
• Ask how the person feels
• Be open with your feelings
• Express concern
• Offer assistance
• Offer to listen

Don't's:

• Be afraid to touch them
• Be afraid of your own fears or uneasiness
• Be patronizing or condescending
• Comment on their appearance
• Offer unsolicited advice
• Put pressure on them (about overcoming the disease, especially at a time when they are feeling weak and vulnerable)
• Share "war stories"

Well, there's plenty of information to share about chemotherapy side effects and cancer research (cancer clinical trials) so let's get to it. Please bear in mind that many of the chemotherapy drugs are used to treat multiple types of cancers. Therefore, if you see a particular chemotherapy drug listed under only one type of cancer just know that it's use may not be limited strictly to that one type of cancer. This is done just to keep things simple and avoid redundancy. I have tried to group the chemotherapy with the types of cancer that they are typically and most often (or at least were initially) used for. So here's the breakdown:

Breast Cancer:

• Adriamycin (Doxorubicin)
• Arimidex (Anastrozole)
• Aromasin (Exemestane)
• Evista (Raloxifene)
• Faslodex (Fulvestrant)
• Femara (Letrozole)
• Herceptin (Trastuzumab)
• Methotrexate
• Nolvadex (Tamoxifen)
• Taxotere (Docetaxel)

Colon Cancer:

• 5-FU (5-Fluorouracil)
• Camptosar (Irinotecan)
• Eloxatin (Oxaliplatin)
• Xeloda (Capecitabine)

Leukemia:

• Vincristine

Lymphoma:

• Rituxan (Rituximab)

Multiple Myeloma:

• Aredia (Pamidronate)

Ovarian Cancer:

• Cytoxan (Cyclophosphamide)
• Doxil (Doxorubicin)
• Platinol (Cisplatin)
• Taxol (Paclitaxel)

Pancreatic Cancer:

• Gemzar (Gemcitabine)

Prostate Cancer:

• Zometa (Zoledronic acid)

Cancer-related medications:

• Aranesp (Darbepoetin)
• Megace (Megestrol acetate)
• Neulasta (Pegfilgrastim)
• Procrit (Epoetin)

• Breast cancer
• Colon cancer
• Leukemia
• Lung cancer
• Melanoma
• Mesothelioma
• Ovarian cancer
• Pancreatic cancer
• Prostate cancer

The most difficult task of the medical profession
is to train patients to become sick
during office hours only.

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May 2, 2009

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