Position Paper on Chemotherapy, Essays (high school) of Biology

Download Position Paper on Chemotherapy and more Essays (high school) Biology in PDF only on Docsity! FAICOL, Justine Abigail F. Chemotherapy is a medication that utilizes drugs to cease the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing (Nordqvist, 2017). It is an expansive purpose for the enhanced survival rate of cancer patients, therefore, making it a crucial part of malignancy treatment (Rashbass, 2016). However, Chemotherapy is systematic and does not only focus on the affected area. This means that it targets the whole system or body of patients diagnosed with various malignancies (American Cancer Society, 2016)–making it toxic for the body because it does not discriminate between cancerous and healthy cells. In line with the aforementioned conditions, chemotherapy is considered to be ineffective in the treatment of cancer since it causes impairment of vital organs, deemed to be a contributing factor of developing secondary cancer, and is supposedly a catalyst of death. Various types of drugs are utilized to medicate malignancies that change the way one’s organs: kidney, liver, and heart function. The alterations are commonly short-term and stop when your medication ends, but multiple chemotherapeutics might cause lasting alterations. According to the Comprehensive Cancer Center (2016), the primary function of kidneys is to cleanse the body from waste, making it prone to drug toxicity with respect to its metabolism and discharge of toxic agents. Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy may develop acute renal failure, the failure of the kidneys to fulfill their primary function, by impairing the blood vessels, cells, or anatomy of the kidney. In addition, Eighty-five percent of patients undergoing chemotherapy generate liver steatosis signifying bothered lipid digestion through modified lipoprotein union in the hepatocytes. This is because the majority of chemotherapeutic drugs are prone to aggravate lipophilic, soluble in lipids, that are preoccupied by the liver yet cannot be discharged effortlessly in bile or urine (Ramadori & Cameron, 2009). Moreover, Chemotherapy treatment can cause the development of cardiomyopathy, heart failure, and microvascular effects in spite of the fact that chemotherapeutics can be profoundly viable at curing cancers. Anthracyclines, a type of chemotherapy drug, in particular, have been discovered to cause an extreme development of impairment to the mitochondrial DNA that can result in oxidative stress-induced heart failure. Clinically, the capacity of chemotherapeutics to trigger cardiovascular morbidity is crucial, which is why medical practitioners keep up a system of communicating with their patients undergoing chemotherapy to monitor and avoid cardiovascular damage (Quryshi, Toro, Ait-Aissa, Kong, & Beyer, 2018). FAICOL, Justine Abigail F. Among the major medical concerns of cancer survivors is the risk of developing secondary cancers, the development of a new and unrelated cancer. According to Kenan Onel, M.D., Ph.D., from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, it was stated that in the previous two decades, up to ten percent of cancer survivors are growing treatment-related secondary tumors despite medicines significantly enhancing the life span of cancer patients. This is due to the fact that chemotherapy ceases tumors by harming DNA but may likewise cause dormant harm to the DNA of healthy cells which may inevitably cause new malignancies (Brower, 2013). In light of the fact that chemotherapy drugs are intended to cease and stop cell division, these drugs are cancer-causing and could influence fetal advancement. Considering that malignant cells are helpless to the harmful impacts of chemotherapeutic drugs, these medications are non-specific and affect healthy cells. Thus, resulting in intense and ceaseless toxicities of chemotherapy drugs especially for patients accepting substantial measurements of the medication (Pan American Health Organization, 2016). Chemotherapy enhances the survival rate of patients diagnosed with cancer. However, it produces significant side-effects that are permanent to the body of a cancer patient. Chemotherapy may cause impairment of vital organs, risk the development of secondary malignancy, and affect the mortality of cancer patients. Above all, studies geared towards improvement and advancement of chemotherapy must be conducted in order to produce chemotherapeutic drugs that are able to discriminate between cancerous and healthy cells. Thus, proper treatment of cancer is made to prevent negative side effects and mortality among cancer patients.