Chemotherapy is a treatment used to treat cancer by destroying cancer cells. It is also used to treat breast cancer. This treatment is taken, or before surgery, after surgery or as a measure to stop the spread of cancer to other parts or reoccurrence of cancer.
To give the patient the treatment of breast cancer based on several factors such as overall health of the people and the stage of breast cancer. However, there are two types of chemotherapy for breast cancer used for this treatment. They adjuvant chemotherapy and neoadjuvant therapy.
Adjuvant chemotherapy: This type of chemotherapy used to combat cancer and a primary form of treatment used to treat breast cancer. This is a very systematic method of treating cancer. This treatment is very useful and helps to increase the survival rate of patients affected with this cancer. There are some types of adjuvant chemotherapy using a combination of hormonal therapy, radiation treatment.
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy: This is used to reduce the tumor and is usually given before the primary treatment. After the tumor has reduced the use of this therapy it is removed surgically.
There are some side effects that are faced by an individual undergoing this treatment. They have diarrhea, sore mouth, hair loss, nausea and sore eyes. These side effects are temporary and will decrease after treatment.
Can consult a doctor to take medications that will help you get relief from these side effects. There are some long-term side effects of this treatment, as well. They are gaining weight, early menopause, the effect on the heart, reduces cognitive function, and difficulty in losing weight. Some of the long-term side effects of this treatment can be life threatening.
However, with these side effects, you should take into account the fact that this treatment increases the survival rate of patients and the chances of reoccurrence of the cancer is reduced.
