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Physical Effects of Chemotherapy

While there are many benefits that chemotherapy can offer cancer patients, it can also possess the potential for very harmful, and sometimes, even fatal physical side effects. The main thing to remember is that chemotherapy can be non-discriminating when it comes to the body's cells that it destroys. Here are some of the physical effects that can stem from chemotherapy.

  1. Suppression of Bone Marrow

    • Many chemotherapy agents will destroy the components of the bone marrow, thus causing a depletion in the ability of the body to produce the various red and white blood cells. Depending upon the treatment course, or program, the bone marrow can recover after the drug has been stopped. Occasionally, this marrow depression and blood cell destruction can become life-threatening. In instances where the treatment course will be of long duration, patients are placed on medication, such as erythropoetin. This helps the body replenish the needed cells and regain a more normal circulating level of them. Low red blood cells can cause a depressed ability of the body to carry oxygen to organs and tissues. Low white blood cells can cause the body to have inadequate defense against infection.

    Hair Loss

    • In the vast majority of cases, alopecia, or loss of hair, does occur with chemotherapy. It typically depends upon the particular drug being used, and the length of the treatment. It can also vary in individuals as far as the degree of hair loss is concerned. The hair loss from chemotherapy is almost always temporary, and re-growth can occur within weeks of drug stoppage. Hair loss is not life-threatening, but can have profound psychological and social implications.

    Sores in the Mouth

    • Some chemotherapy agents can cause the development of sores in the mouth and/or throat. The main reason for this is that the cells of the mucous lining of the mouth and throat are rapidly dividing cells. The chemotherapy drugs affect the body's ability to adequately replenish these cells on a normal basis.

    Nausea and Vomiting

    • Nausea and vomiting may well be the most worried about side effect of chemotherapy. While advances are constantly being made in developing drugs that have fewer and less severe side effects, nausea and vomiting continue to be ever present. For the most part, nausea and vomiting are caused by irritation of the lining of the stomach, and the duodenum which is the very beginning portion of the small intestine where food leaves the stomach. When these linings are irritated, it can cause the stimulation of various nerves in the body's vomiting center of the brain. Nausea and vomiting can also be caused by such things as delayed emptying of the stomach, mechanical blockage or obstruction of the intestine and inflammation, all of which can be caused by the chemotherapy agents.

    Organ Damage

    • Because of the non-discriminating nature of many chemotherapy agents, and in spite of drugs that have been developed to target tumors more specifically in different ways, the risk of damage to organs and organ systems remains ever present.
      In some instances, the damage to organs can be stopped by discontinuation of the drug in favor of another. In other cases, the organ damage can be permanent. Some of the organs that are more commonly affected and damaged from chemotherapy include the heart, lungs, liver and kidney, although no organ is truly safe from damage. In some instances, the effects of organ damage do not readily show up on conventional X-rays, and blood tests may only show the effects on the organs only after considerable damage has occurred.

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