Chemotherapy

Types of chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is aimed to reduce the tumor or completely stop its growth and is the main component of comprehensive cancer treatment. It has a general, systemic effect on the body and it means that the medical agent enters any part of the body and affects any of dividing cells.

Chemotherapy treatment is individual for each patient and is divided into pre op (neoadjuvant), post op (adjuvant) and supportive (palliative).

• Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is prescribed before surgery. Usually, it’s purposed for tumor reducing before its following removal during surgery, as well as at determining the body's response to the medical agent giving the maximum therapeutic impact to the tumor.
• Adjuvant chemotherapy is prescribed after the removal of the tumor. It is purposed to prevent disease recurrence and treatment of distant metastases.
• Palliative chemotherapy is prescribed when cancer healing is impossible. It is aimed to relief the disease symptoms as much as possible.

The modern approach to chemo treatment of cancer includes the medications of different groups: actual chemotherapeutic medications (or cytostatics), targeted medications and immunotherapy medications.

• Cytostatic agents, or chemotherapeutic medications, inhibit or slow down the cancer cells growth, affecting them at certain stages of their cell cycle. Cancer cells divide faster than normal cells, but nevertheless, chemotherapy medications do not distinguish cancer dividing cells from healthy dividing cells, and therefore, for example, healthy cells of the gastrointestinal tract and hair follicles, which also have a rapid cycle of division, are very susceptible to the effects of chemotherapeutic drugs, so they suffer when those are administered. There are many chemotherapy medications that are used either alone or in combination with other cancer treatments.
• Targeted therapy drugs act directly on target cells that have any genetic changes that lead to the development of a tumor. That is, when receiving the targeted therapy, healthy tissues and organs surrounding the tumor are not exposed to such an aggressive influence, as is the case when receiving chemotherapy with medications of general action. Thanks to this selective influence, it is possible to reduce the side effect on the whole body to a minimum, ensuring the maximum effectiveness of the direct treatment of the cancer cells. Targeted chemotherapy has shown its effectiveness at various stages of the disease, including late stage ones. As a rule, target drugs are tablets, their use does not require a long stay in the inpatient hospital, and allows you to lead a normal lifestyle surrounded by family and loved ones.
• Immunotherapy medications do not kill the tumor directly, but activate the patient's own immune system, which fights the tumor cells and prevents the formation of new cells. This type of therapy has become one of the achievements of the last decade in the treatment of oncological and oncohematological diseases.

The combination of chemotherapeutic drugs of different groups not only increases the effectiveness of cancer treatment, but also improves the quality of treatment, tolerance to treatment, and extend the patients life. Such a combination of different drugs in simultaneous therapy is called polychemotherapy.

Chemotherapy in «Manufactura» clinic

In the «Manufactura» clinic we use the chemo medications that are recommended by such world oncological resources as NCCN, ASCO, ESMO, AHA and EHA. And the very process is managed according to modern worldwide protocols and includes:

• the exact dosage of drugs,
• giving the supportive therapy,
• careful control on the duration of drug administration,
• conformity of the intervals and number of chemotherapy cycles to generally accepted worldwide standards.

Drug dosage control is a regulated treatment protocol and is carried out by the attending physician, pharmacist and nurse. For chemotherapy, we use only original medications or generics produced by well-known international companies certified in Ukraine.

The treatment is given in comfortable wards. In case of deterioration of laboratory indicators or the patient's general condition, we transfer the patient to the intensive care unit for round-the-clock supervision by anesthesiologists and resuscitators for stabilization of his/her condition.

Having the experienced doctors and special equipment allow us to install special central venous catheters - port systems that simplify and make long-term drugs administration comfortable for the patient, as well as protect the patient's veins from multiple punctures in cases when the course of chemotherapy lasts more than 7-10 days as well as several courses are planned.

Supplement therapy in a comprehensive chemotherapy

The supportive therapy is necessary to improve the patient's condition and well-being during the course of chemotherapy. It is aimed not only at reducing the side effects (complications) of chemotherapy drugs, but also at ensuring high tolerance to them, which enhances the overall effect of treatment.

In order to timely determine the complications of chemotherapy (the development of massive tumor disintegration syndrome, acute kidney injury, toxic liver damage, etc.), during chemotherapy in the «Manufactura» clinic, we constantly monitor the blood parameters with the laboratory tests and the function of the cardiovascular system with ECG and echocardiography along with observation other body systems condition. On the basis of the diagnosed changes we build the appropriate corrective supportive therapy.

Our own modern laboratory and diagnostic center in the clinic help us timely, accuratly and round-the-clock diagnosis any changes in the patient's body caused by the disease complications or by treatment course.