Mesothelioma Chemotherapy-What is the Role of Cisplatin?
Cisplatin is a chemotherapy drug containing platinum as its major constituent. This chemotherapy agent is used to treat different types of asbestos related cancers, including mesothelioma. Most of the time doctors often combine Cisplatin with newer chemotherapy medications to increase effectiveness of the treatment.
Cisplatin is not a newly discovered drug, it has been on the market for some time, though it was initially generally found to be ineffective in treating mesothelioma when it is used as a monotherapy, but when combined with the new chemotherapy drug Alimta, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2005, Cisplatin has proven to be an effective medication. The combination of Alimta and Cisplatin is presently considered to be one of the most effective chemotherapy treatments for pleural mesothelioma patients, especially in advanced cases where surgery might not be an option.
Cisplatin was the first drug to be discovered in the class of alkylating agents {it was discovered about 30 years ago}and it has more side effects than the newer generations of alkylating agents, so most doctors would have tried to use one of the newer chemotherapy agents before recommending treatment with Cisplatin.
When placed on Cisplatin you should also take folic acid supplements daily (by mouth), and you should continue taking it for 21 days after the last dosage cycle of Cisplatin and Alimta. Doctor will also prescribe an oral steroid to help minimize side effects such as skin rash. Patients taking other medications, either prescriptions or non-prescriptions such as supplements, must inform their physician to avoid potential serious drug interactions.
Cisplatin with Alimta is given to mesothelioma patients every 21 days on an outpatient basis, usually at a hospital or cancer treatment center. The treatment consists of a dose of Alimta by IV (which typically lasts about 10 to 15 minutes), followed by Cisplatin (which takes approximately two hours to administer). The number of cycles required will depend on the patient's response to medications, as well as any side effects experienced.
Side Effects
Side effects of Cisplatin and Alimta are usually mild to moderate for most patients with pleural mesothelioma, and include:
Nausea
Vomiting
Fatigue
Thinned or brittle hair
Loss of appetite or weight
Diarrhea
Changes in taste
Numbness or tingling in the fingertips and toes
Kidney toxicity
Low white blood cells (neutropenia)
Low red blood cells (anemia)
Patients experiencing any of the following symptoms should immediately call their doctor:
Unusual bruising or bleeding
Black stools
Fever
Chills
Dizziness
Diarrhea
Shortness of breath or wheezing
Swelling of the feet or ankles
Seizures
Rash
Sometimes patients may encounter extreme side effects, these should be reported to a medical professional immediately. Cisplatin could also cause severe kidney damage so you are also advised to take plenty of fluids when you are placed on this chemotherapy agent as this will aid its rapid elimination from the body and will reduce the tendency for the drug to accumulate in the kidneys.
Questions and Answers
Tips for using article reprints in your business. Learn ideas for getting the most out of article reprints.
You can be successful in requesting your articles be reprinted on targeted niche websites if you know how to ask.
Many people new to websites and/or ecommerce are confused at the in and outs of ecommerce. Even many people who are fairly adept at scripting can set up a store using some popular package such as OSCommerce and then are left stumped by the idea of making it work with a payment gateway to actually collect money and put it into their account. In this article, I will give a brief overview of how the system is set up to collect your money.
Internet Marketing Ideas and Tips designed to assist Affiliate Marketers with making decisions about which products to market. Includes ideas and tips in making these selection decisions.
As you have probably heard over and over, keyword research is a pivotal step for success. Taken a step further, it can develop your product lines for you.
What is phpAdsNew? It is great script written in PHP which can be used to manage different ad campaigns on your website. PhpAdsNew supports banners of any size (including flash banners), pop-ups, text ads and many different types of rich media ads
Cancer translational research brings together scientists' and clinicians' suggestions to develop solutions to biomedical complications. This kind of applied research strives to offer strategies to questions surrounding the etiology, pathology, diagnosis, prevention and treating cancer.
Orbs are actually a lumpectomy or quadrantectomy combined with rotating the breast tissue or mobilize the flap into the cavity of the surgery time fill is removed. It also includes the comparative change in shape and size is doing in relation to breast and moved if necessary, does not affect the conversion of the breast. The deferred plan the reconstruction is not part of endoplasmic techniques. Both procedures are performed by specific thoracic surgeons.
What every woman fears for is losing her self confidence , losing hope and losing her personality. The term "Breast Cancer" is a very negative word and that it creates negative vibrations in her heart. So, to make her comfortable with the basics of breast cancer and to make her means any woman understand that this type of cancer is the least dangerous than all cancers and that if it is detected early then you will fight with it successfully. Causes, Symptoms, treatment, discussed in detail.
Mesothelioma is a rare cancer that originates in the mesothelium. The mesothelium is the protective lining that covers the body's internal organs. Mesothelioma occurs when the mesothelium cells start to divide uncontrollably.
Chemotherapy is a treatment for killing cancerous cells which is given intravenous or extra-venous to the cancer patient. Even breast cancer patients have to go through the treatment. This treatment mainly focuses on the cancerous cells that are spread in the blood stream in the whole body . If any cancerous cells are there then they are killed by the chemotherapy medicine. The medicine is very costly and it has to be taken for one or two days continuously for every 21 days .
Many people are gradually developing cold feet towards the use of conventional medical drugs to cure their diseases and illnesses; this is because many people have now realised that some of these drugs are actually synthesised chemicals that usually have a lot of bad cumulative effects on the body. So, that is the reason why many people are now turning to the use of natural remedies like homeopathic remedies to cure their illnesses.
However, while it is true that the average Candida diet plan will lead to some degree of weight loss (which by the way is an advantage for people that want to lose excess weight) there are certain foods that can be safely added to a Candida diet to discourage excessive weight loss.
Even though most Candida sufferers are aware of the importance of the need for them to modify and change their diet, most people will still find the transition process from their former diet to an anti-yeast diet, a very daunting challenge. Therefore, you need to maintain your motivation if you are to complete the necessary anti-yeast diet changes and the following three points will help you to maintain your motivation and momentum:
Vitamin C is one of the supplements that can be used to aid the cure of Candida infection and there are three main ways by which vitamin C aid relief of Candida overgrowth:
Although the use of probiotics alone cannot cure yeast infection, they should be used to compliment the actions of other major aspects of Candida treatment like Candida diet and the use of anti-fungals.
Discuss this Article
