The epidemic situation is threatening. In the process of epidemic prevention, people have to worry about the failure of chemotherapy due to the impact of the epidemic situation. So, does it matter to postpone chemotherapy? Can you postpone the next chemotherapy for a few days?
Don't worry. Today, kekejun will take you to answer these questions!
1. Why does chemotherapy have periodicity?
Before answering, first of all, we need to know what is "chemotherapy" and "chemotherapy cycle"?
Chemotherapy is the main treatment for tumors. On the one hand, chemotherapy drugs can effectively kill tumor cells, take effect quickly, and effectively control the disease in a period of time; On the other hand, chemotherapy drugs generally have no obvious targeting, and may also kill normal cells, cause adverse reactions, and bring certain harm to the patient's body [1].
The chemotherapy cycle is formulated according to the half-life of the drug, the duration of toxic and side effects of the drug, the recovery time of the human body and the doubling time of the tumor. Generally, the next three to four weeks are called a cycle from the first day of administration.
In a cycle, chemotherapy is usually given only in the first week; In the second week, the toxic reaction of chemotherapy drugs was the most serious, and it was the time period that needed the most strict monitoring; The third and fourth weeks are the recovery stage of human function, which is a buffer period. During this period, the human body begins to repair the damage caused by chemotherapy. Therefore, chemotherapy administration is not a continuous process, but a time period of fractional administration!
As some chemotherapy drugs have the side effect of bone marrow suppression, the signal is the decrease in the number of white blood cells and platelets. Usually, bone marrow suppression takes two to four weeks to gradually recover. Therefore, the interval between the use of these drugs will increase accordingly.
The purpose of such interval medication is to give the body time to rest and adjust, so as to restore or rebuild the immune function of the body and fully regulate the functions of various organs. Usually, the doctor will recommend taking some drugs or nutrients to improve immune function during this period.
2. What is the chemotherapy interval?
In addition to the chemotherapy cycle, there is an interval for chemotherapy.
It can also be learned from the above that chemotherapy drugs can also cause certain effects on human normal cells, so they cannot be used continuously for a long time. The length of the interval is determined by three indicators: whether the drug toxicity has basically disappeared, whether the body has recovered its normal function, and whether the killed tumor cells have been repaired.
Generally speaking, regular chemotherapy for patients with malignant tumors requires 3 ~ 6 courses of treatment, each cycle is generally 22 ~ 28 days, and the duration is half a year. There is a "chemotherapy interval" between every two chemotherapy cycles. The chemotherapy interval is generally 2-3 weeks. During this period, most patients are discharged and go home for rest [2].
3. Will the delay affect the curative effect?
So back to the point, will the delay of chemotherapy time affect the curative effect due to the impact of the epidemic or other reasons?
it will be!
Although we usually think that each course of chemotherapy can eliminate ordinary cancer cells in the body, it only takes three courses to eliminate most cancer cells. But in fact, this cognition is incorrect. Although tumor cells will be killed, at the same time, the "surviving" cancer cells will continue to proliferate.
So chemotherapy is actually a race against cancer cells. If the chemotherapy is delayed for too long, the elimination speed may not keep up with the proliferation speed, and the treatment effect will be greatly reduced.
4. What are the solutions for chemotherapy delay?
For the chemotherapy delay caused by the above different reasons, the solutions are not the same.
If the adverse reaction is delayed, we should wait until the corresponding adverse reaction recovers to a certain extent before proceeding to the next step of treatment. Kekejun reminds us here that in case of adverse reaction, we should timely feed back to the doctor, who will decide on the next step of treatment.
If it is due to psychological or economic reasons, kekejun suggests that we should try our best to overcome it and actively fight against the disease. We should not give up!
If it is caused by the epidemic, kekejun thinks that in areas with mild epidemic, comprehensive protection can be done, and after contacting the hospital, chemotherapy can be carried out within the specified course of treatment; In case of an outbreak area, it is necessary to actively contact the relevant responsible personnel and try to find ways to go to the hospital for corresponding chemotherapy as soon as possible to shorten the delay time.
END
Although this wave of epidemic situation is threatening, we should be full of hope. Patients in the chemotherapy cycle should not blindly delay the chemotherapy time because of the epidemic situation. We should try our best to contact the community and the hospital while doing a good job of protection, and complete the chemotherapy course as soon as possible!
Article source:
http://www.mijian360.com/news/18127.html
