What is the most serious complication of chemotherapy?

Low blood cell counts is the most common and most serious side effect of chemotherapy. When it happens, the dose of chemotherapy is adjusted right away or chemotherapy may have to be stopped temporarily. A low white blood cell count (neutropenia or leukopenia) increases the risk for infection.

What is the most life threatening side effect of chemotherapy?

Infections. Chemotherapy can reduce your body's ability to fight infection. This makes you more likely to get infections that could make you seriously ill.

What organ is most affected by chemotherapy?

Some anticancer medicines may affect cells of vital organs, such as the heart, kidney, bladder, lungs, and nervous system. Chemo may have no serious long-term problems for many people. But in some cases, it can cause permanent changes or damage to the heart, lungs, nerves, kidneys, and reproductive or other organs.

What are severe reactions to chemotherapy?

Symptoms include flushing, nausea, difficulty breathing, back pain, hypotension and tachycardia. Hypersensitivity is commonly encountered owing to the increasing use of chemotherapy drugs in clinical practice. The pathogenetic mechanisms are not fully understood but they seem to vary between agents.

What are the three most common side effects of chemotherapy?

Acute Complications of Chemotherapy (side effects, adverse effects)

When chemotherapy is not recommended?

Your oncologist may recommend avoiding chemotherapy if your body is not healthy enough to withstand chemotherapy or if there is a more effective treatment available.

How many days after chemo do side effects start?

Feeling and being sick. Sickness caused by chemotherapy can start within a couple of hours of starting your treatment and only last a day or so. Or it can come on more than 24 hours after the start of treatment. This is called delayed onset nausea and vomiting and usually lasts about a week.

How do you know if your body is rejecting chemotherapy?

Signs that a person's cancer is not responding to chemotherapy include: a tumor growing or not shrinking. cancer spreading to other areas of the body, a process called metastasis. cancer symptoms returning.

How long is a chemo patient toxic?

It generally takes about 48 to 72 hours for your body to break down and/or get rid of most chemo drugs. But it's important to know that each chemo drug is excreted or passed through the body a bit differently.

Can your body reject chemotherapy?

Commonly known as drug resistance, this phenomenon is one of the most challenging problems facing cancer researchers and patients today. When cancer cells resist the effects of drugs used for treatment, they can grow and reform tumors, a process known as recurrence or relapse.

Can chemo cause death?

When administering chemotherapy, you need to consider each patient's health condition like weight, height, liver function, and kidney function. However, there are some cancer patients who have died after receiving chemotherapy, but there are just a few numbers of them.

Do oncologists lie about prognosis?

Yet, oncologists do not routinely share prognoses. In a study of nearly 600 patients with advanced cancer, only 17.6% of the 71% who wanted to know their prognosis reported being told [2].

How hard is chemotherapy on your body?

Chemotherapy can cause fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, bowel issues such as constipation or diarrhoea, hair loss, mouth sores, skin and nail problems. You may have trouble concentrating or remembering things. There can also be nerve and muscle effects and hearing changes. You will be at increased risk of infections.

Do chemo side effects get worse with every treatment?

Don't plan your chemo response until you've gone through your first infusion. The effects of chemo are cumulative. They get worse with each cycle.

When should you go to the ER for chemo side effects?

If you experience chemotherapy- or radiation-induced side effects, for example, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea, and you are unable to control them with medications prescribed by your doctor, you should seek medical care in the EC. The most common problems for which cancer patients come to the EC are pain or high fever.

How long does chemotherapy shorten your life?

During the 3 decades, the proportion of survivors treated with chemotherapy alone increased from 18% in 1970-1979 to 54% in 1990-1999, and the life expectancy gap in this chemotherapy-alone group decreased from 11.0 years (95% UI, 9.0-13.1 years) to 6.0 years (95% UI, 4.5-7.6 years).

What happens if you touch chemo pee?

Your caregivers can absorb the drugs through their skin if they touch these fluids. Short-term exposure to some of these drugs can cause skin rashes, nausea, vomiting, belly pain, cough, dizziness, eye irritation, hair loss, headache, mouth/throat/nose sores and allergic reactions.

When do oncologists stop chemo?

Both the American Society of Clinical Oncology Quality Oncology Practice Initiative and the National Safety Forum include the discontinuation of chemotherapy within 2 weeks before death as a quality indicator of poor EOL care.

Why would a doctor stop chemotherapy?

Some reasons why you might consider stopping include: Your cancer is advanced, and further treatment won't make a big difference in how long you live. You've tried multiple treatments that haven't worked. The risks or side effects of treatment outweigh the benefits.

Why is Benadryl given before chemo?

RATIONALE: Diphenhydramine, lorazepam, and dexamethasone may help lessen or prevent nausea and vomiting in patients treated with chemotherapy.

Is it normal to sleep a lot after chemo?

Fatigue caused by chemotherapy may last for some weeks or months after a treatment cycle ends. Many people find that their energy levels return to normal within 6–12 months of treatment ending. While fatigue is a common side effect of chemotherapy, it can also be a symptom of depression.

What happens the first few days after chemotherapy?

These may include nausea and vomiting, fatigue, and other side effects. This can include recommendations about eating well and getting regular exercise. Relieving physical and emotional side effects is an important part of your overall cancer treatment. This type of care is called palliative care or supportive care.

What is the fastest way to recover from chemotherapy?