Combination chemotherapy is the use of more than one medication at a time to treat cancer.
At the same time, however, multiple drugs may increase the risk of drug interactions.
Using this approach, cancers that had previously been almost universally fatal such asacute lymphocytic leukemiaandHodgkins lymphomabecame largely curable.
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These drugs don’t work by destroying cancer cells the way chemotherapy does.
These new targeted therapies include enzyme blockers, receptor blockers, immunotherapies and others.
They have also been used in combination with chemotherapy with encouraging results.
Uses
There are many combinations of chemotherapy drugs used to treat cancer.
Solid Tumors
Combination chemotherapy is used with several types of solid tumors.
Leukemias and Lymphomas
With some leukemiasand Hodgkin lymphoma,several chemotherapy drugs may be used together.
Combination chemotherapy has greatly increased survival rates of many of these diseases.
Sometimes an acronym is used to describe combination chemotherapy.
Immunotherapy drugs work by helping the immune system recognize and attack cancer cells.
Benefits
There are several theoretical advantages to using a combination of chemotherapy medications rather than single agents.
It is usually the development of resistance that results in chemotherapy becoming ineffective over time.
Multidimensional Offense
Cancer is a complex disease involving many steps.
More Effective
Scientists use the termtumor heterogeneityto describe how thecancer cells in tumorsvary from each other.
The initial cells in a cancer are identical.
But as cancer cells continue to divide, they develop successively more mutations.
This may reduce reduce the likelihood of toxic effects.
This has been especially true when chemotherapy is used as an adjuvant treatment.
With metastatic cancer, the goal of treatment is often different.
In this case, a single chemotherapy drug may be preferable and allow for a better quality of life.
Disadvantages and Risks
Some possible disadvantages of combination chemotherapy include the following.
More Side Effects
It goes without saying that more medications means agreater riskof side effects.
This applies tochemotherapy side effects, the likelihood of which is higher when more than one drug is used.
In this case, all of the medications may need to be discontinued if the side effect is serious.
Drug Interactions
Sometimes side effects occur not because of a particular medication, but reactions between medications.
That said, adding more medications can increase the side effects and rigor of treatment.
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