Cancer Treatment Cancer Drugs: Know the Types
Do you have a family member or friend who is
suffering from a critical health issue like cancer? If yes, then you must be worried about their health condition. Isn’t it? Well, cancer is an extremely
severe health disease. Unfortunately, the disease can
cause very serious health impacts. That’s why it’s important that you know the
right drugs that can be used for cancer treatment.
Chemotherapy:
Most Common Treatment for Cancer
If you are looking for the most common treatment option for cancer, then
chemotherapy is indeed one of the best recommendations. The treatment is used
for two purposes. First of all, chemotherapy can kill cancer cells.
Secondly, it can even stop / pause the growth and spread of cancer cells.
In addition to
chemotherapy, there are newer versions of advanced
cancer-fighting drugs that should also be used for better results.
You can either take chemotherapy through pills or you can even take shots.
Cancer Treatment / Drugs – Know The
Types:-
Damages DNA of
Cancer Cells: There are
certain drugs that damage the DNA of cancer cells that keep them from making
more copies. These are known as alkylating agents. Please note that these are
the oldest form of chemotherapy. This treatment option is used to cure different
types of cancer, such as lymphoma, sarcoma, multiple myeloma, Hodgkin’s
disease, leukemia, and more. This treatment can even treat some
other forms of cancer like lungs, breasts, and ovarian cancers.
You must intake this particular
type of cancer drug at a very little amount. That’s because it can cause
significant side effects. One of the major side effects of alkylating agents is
that they destroy your bone marrow while killing bad cancer cells.
Anthracycline Chemotherapy: This is another treatment technique in which the enzymes
inside a cancer cell and its DNA get affected. In this way, it prevents the DNA
from further dividing and growing. Examples of such anthracycline
chemotherapy drugs are doxorubicin, actinomycin-D, daunorubicin, and bleomycin.
Note, these drugs are highly effective in treating different types of cancer.
However, these are all anti-tumor antibiotics and hence you should be careful
about their dosage. For example, if you intake high doses of these drugs, then
they can damage both your lungs and heart.
Miotic Inhibitors: Have you heard about mitotic inhibitors? Well,
these drugs stop the cancer cells from making replicas i.e. more copies of
themselves. Please note that there is a certain type of protein that is needed
to grow the cancer cells. If somehow the source of that protein is stopped,
then the subsequent growth of cancer cells can also be prevented. Mitotic
inhibitors perform the very same action and that’s why they are extremely
effective for treating breast as well as lung cancers. In
addition to it, these drugs can also be effective in treating lymphoma,
leukemia, and myeloma.
Topoisomerase Inhibitors: In the previous sections, you have heard about mitotic
inhibitors. Now, let’s talk about topoisomerase inhibitors. The working
principle of topoisomerase inhibitors is also quite similar to mitotic
inhibitors. These drugs also attack the enzymes that help cancer cells to
divide and grow. On top of that, these medicines can even treat some types of
leukemia as well. In addition to it, these medicines can
treat cancer in the ovaries, intestines, and lungs.
Antimetabolites: As the name implies, this particular variant of
cancer drugs is effective for the treatment of leukemia. In addition to it, they
can even prevent cancer in the ovaries, intestines, and breasts.
Antimetabolites medicines interfere and prevent the normal metabolism of the
cells. Due to that, the cancer cells will stop growing. If you are now looking
for antimetabolite drugs, then you can opt for mercaptopurine,
methotrexate, gemcitabine, and cytarabine.
Steroids: Steroids are a special type of drug. These drugs will act like
your body’s own natural hormones. They can be particularly helpful in treating
different types of cancer. Steroid drugs also have a special purpose i.e. they
help your body from the symptoms of nausea and vomiting. Some of the commonly
used steroid drugs are dexamethasone, prednisone, and methylprednisolone.
With this, you have revealed six
different types of cancer treatment. Here’s the list of drugs
that have been discussed above:
Alkylating agents
Anthracycline
chemotherapy
Miotic
inhibitors
Topoisomerase
inhibitors
Antimetabolites
Steroid drugs
These chemo drugs are effective in treating different types of
cancers. But, you should be careful and take account of the following
three factors before you start intaking these medicines:
The specific type of cancer the
patient is having
If you have had cancer
previously or not
If you have
additional health problems like heart, kidney, liver disease, and diabetes
In case you have diabetes or other critical health diseases,
then you must be careful, and please take the doctor’s advice and
recommendations (as needed).
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