There are a very few cancer treatments that are available till now, chemotherapy is the most evident one. Treatment procedure of cancer are not just limited chemotherapy but also have a lot of other procedures for treatment. Chemotherapy is used to eradicate the cancer-causing cells from the body and protect it from further infection. However, chemotherapy also has its side-effects and disadvantages that makes it a tough procedure to go through. In addition to that chemotherapy has been linked to number of health complications and still does not guarantee cancer protection at 100%. Similar to this, there is oral chemotherapy which is given to the patients in order to treat certain types of cancer, let us look how effective is this oral treatment of cancer.
What is Oral Chemotherapy?
When you look at chemotherapy it contains needles or drugs that is equipped with some high-tech machinery. But what if it can all come together in a tablet? Would be amazing right, similar is the story of oral chemotherapy. According to Dr. Anand Bahuja, Head of Oncology Department, BNK Hospital, Bangalore to know about oral chemotherapy method. He explained that people getting chemotherapy that can be administered through some drugs are given this method of treatment. Oral chemotherapy is not possible for every cancer treatment, it also depends on the stage of chemotherapy.
Side-Effects of Oral Chemotherapy
It is a fact that chemotherapy helps to kill cancer cells but what is also true is that it causes similar side-effects that happens in chemotherapy. Oral chemotherapy is more convenient but it needs strict monitoring that things do not go in the negative direction. Here are 7 possible side-effects of Oral chemotherapy that could occur-
1. Hair Loss
One of the most common side-effect of chemotherapy and cancer treatment is hair loss. People undertaking this therapy often lose their hair and are not able to cope up with it. It becomes especially challenging for women that have to live with it for rest of their lives. Hair loss as a side-effect of oral chemotherapy can be exhausting and depressing.
2. Skin Changes
Chemotherapy drugs are high dosage medicines that affect your system on a large scale. Oral chemotherapy can affect the way your skin looks, it can engage more wrinkles on the body. Your skin tends to becomes more itchy, dry and dark after this treatment method. Oral pills of chemotherapy can result to photosensitivity as well which can cause sunburns very easily. Side-effect of oral chemotherapy drugs can even lead you to skin pigmentation issues and change in nails such as cracked or dark colored nails.
Also Read- Can Viral Hepatitis Be Treated? Know From An Expert
3. Sores in the Mouth
You may even develop sores in the mouth because of chemotherapy pills. Mouth sores usually develop after starting few days of oral chemotherapy. It can go a long way and affect your eating patterns. However, it does not last long in many cases and can be eased up as the chemotherapy stop. But chances of happening so are less likely in severe cases of cancer.
4. Getting Bruises Easily
Another very problematic situation that occurs after oral chemotherapy has started is that of getting bruises easily. Platelet count in the blood goes down because of which the clotting develops very rapidly. Therefore, even slight bruises can lead the person to heavy bleeding according to the situation. Platelet deficiency is the cause behind this problem. In some cases, it might happen without even having an injury.
5. Fatigue and Tiredness
Fatigue and tiredness are very common side-effects after having oral chemotherapy. You may feel almost equally tired after having an oral chemotherapy drug and that can lead you to severe problems in your lifestyle. Tiredness is common during any cancer treatment therapy because your body goes through a lot in this phase. There is no as such solution for this issue.
6. Infections like flu
You may also get many side effects such as infections. A person going through oral chemotherapy session needs to check his health condition very carefully. The immunity of the body gets weakened because of cancer and therefore it becomes vulnerable to infections. Flu is very common to have during a cancer treatment which is same case with oral chemotherapy as well.
Also Read- What Is Oral Cancer? Symptoms And Causes By Expert
7. Diarrhea, Nausea and vomiting
Depending on the type of cancer treatment, you may even get affected by diarrhea. Oral chemotherapy can cause nausea at most times and therefore it could be difficult for the person to tackle it both physically and mentally. Nausea and diarrhea can be caused because of the loss of immunity and side-effect of strong medicated drugs of chemotherapy. Diarrhea can be affected over the period of time and might be very challenging to face.
Picture Credits- pixabay.com
