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Cumulative Intensity of Chemotherapy Side Effects

Chemotherapy has a wide variety of side effects, from hair loss to nausea to peripheral neuropathy. Very few of these side effects occur with the first treatment. Most, such as hair loss, accumulate over time throughout the course of the chemotherapy treatment. As a result, many side effects can intensify with each dose administered.

  1. Hair Loss

    • Chemotherapy targets rapidly dividing cells, like cancer cells, but other healthy cells that also rapidly divide are often affected. The most common cells affected are hair cells, which leads to hair loss during treatment. Over the course of chemotherapy, more and more hair follicles are affected, and patients can lose hair from their eyebrows, eyelashes, legs, underarms, and pubic areas as well as the hair from their heads.

    Low Blood Cell Counts

    • Blood cells of all three main types (white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets) can also be targeted by chemotherapy, which can cause anemia, bruising and bleeding, or a vulnerability to infection. As the treatment progresses, the low blood cell counts can worsen. This sometimes delays additional treatment because the cell counts need to rise before more chemotherapy is administered. Excessive anemia, bruising or any infection can result in hospitalization.

    Nausea and Vomiting

    • Some chemotherapy drugs are more prone to causing nausea and vomiting than others. Only a few drugs have a high probability of nausea and vomiting, and for those, doctors usually prescribe antiemetics from the beginning. For most other drugs, the risk of nausea and vomiting develops over time.

    Mouth Sores

    • Mouth sores can occur with any cancer treatment, but the risk of developing severe mouth sores dramatically increases if patients receive cumulative high doses of chemotherapy or if they receive both chemotherapy and radiation therapy treatments.

    Pain

    • Pain is a possible side effect from either cancer or cancer treatment. If not properly managed when it first starts, the pain can worsen over the course of treatment and even remain after treatment is finished.

    Peripheral Neuropathy

    • Peripheral neuropathy, a condition that causes numbness and tingling in the hands due to nerve damage, is sometimes a side effect from certain chemotherapy drugs. Depending on the nerve damage, the patient may have residual effects after treatment or could even have long-term difficulties in moving or feeling.

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