Body Systems Essay: Lung Cancer And Chemotherapy

Body Systems Essay: Lung Cancer & Chemotherapy

Introduction:

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death and second most common cancer in both men and women ("Lung Cancer: Facts, Types and Causes," 2015). This essay discusses the application of chemotherapy, as it the most commonly used treatment for lung cancer, its method to fight the cancer, it’s efficacy and limitation against lung cancer specifically.

Problem:

Lung cancer is the result of abnormal cells, usually the cells that line the air passages in the lungs, growing uncontrollably. These abnormal cells do not develop into healthy lung tissues, instead they divide rapidly and form tumors. As the tumors become larger and more numerous, they weaken the lung’s ability to provide

The most commonly used chemotherapy drugs work by interrupting cell division, effectively targeting all fast dividing cells, which is one of the main characteristics of cancer cells. Due to its indiscrimitive nature, chemotherapy also damages the normal fast growing cells and results in adverse side effects, which are discussed in the next section. Various types of chemical drugs are used in Chemo, their delivery method and the dosage are determined by clinical trials. Chemo drugs are usually given in the following ways: oral chemo, subcutaneous injection of chemo treatment, intra-muscular chemo injections. The type of cancer, the extent of the cancer, as well as the types of drugs that are given determine the length of chemo treatment. The treatment is generally given in cycles, this gives time for the drugs to work and body to recover ("What Is Chemotherapy?,"

Common drug combanations for lung cancer are: Cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and vincristine ("Chemotherapy," n.d.).

Chemo can be used together with other treatments for different goals: Neo-adjuvant is used to make tumor smaller before surgery or radiation therapy. Adjuvant chemotherapy is used to destroy any remaining cancer cell after surgery or radiation therapy. Chemo used for recurrent cancer helps radiation therapy and biological therapy work better and destroys cancer cells that have come back ("Chemotherapy Uses, Side Effects, Types, How It's Given, and More," n.d.).

Implication:

The most commonly used chemo drugs are cytotoxic, which means they kill cells, and in particular cells that split rapidly("Chemotherapy," n.d.). Therefore, they can also harm healthy cells that are supposed to divide quickly, such as those in one’s blood, digestive system, mouth and hair follicles. ("Chemotherapy Uses, Side Effects, Types, How It's Given, and More," n.d.), which lead to major side effects that