Chemotherapy Drugs: All Data that You Need to Understand
Chemotherapy drugs are pretty numerous and they fall into various categories following such criteria as the way they work, the relationship they establish with other drugs and the chemical structure they have. The origin of most drugs is in herbal extracts that are afterwards processed and combined in laboratories. Don’t be surprised to find a drug classified in more categories, because there are many such cases in the medical world. Medical science and professional competence in the health care realm involves a good knowledge of chemotherapy drugs and their specificity.
Alkylating agents is a first class of chemotherapy drugs worth mentioning. These drugs are pretty damaging to the bone marrow because they damage the DNA to stop the reproduction of the cancerous cells. Lots of cancer cases get treated with this kind of chemotherapy drugs, with the mention that doses are always kept low because of the risk to develop leukemia up to ten years after the cessation of the treatment. The platinum based drugs are sometimes included in the same category because they act in a very similar manner against the disease.
Another category of chemotherapy drugs is the one consisting of antimetabolites. They are used in treating ovary and intestinal cancers, breast tumors and leukemia and their impact is not limited to the DNA but also extends to the RNA too.
The anthracyclines represent another type of chemotherapy drugs being part of the antibiotic group. Their action is directed against enzymes that contribute to the DNA replication and they are encountered in a wide variety of cancer treatments.
Next is the category of inhibitors. The topoisomerase inhibitors separate and copy the DNA strands efficiently treating leukemia. The mitotic inhibitors are more natural-based derived from plants and they help in preventing enzymes from producing proteins required in cell reproduction. Even so, there is one huge risk that patients take when following such a treatment: these chemotherapy drugs could cause peripheral nerve damage to count just one the health threats you may fear.
Finally, the corticosteroids represent chemotherapy drugs based on hormones and designed to treat myeloma, lymphoma and leukemia besides other diseases. In addition to reducing the speed of cell growth, they also have a positive impact on the way the body reacts to chemotherapy by preventing nausea, vomiting or other types of allergic reactions. These types of drugs may be used as chemotherapy ones or not, depending on the purpose they are supposed to serve.
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