What Are the Chemical Therapeutic Agents Available?

Chemotherapy, referred to as chemo for short, is a common treatment method for malignant tumors. Cancer patients generally require chemotherapy after surgery, and sometimes even without surgery. The advantage of chemotherapy is that it can kill cancer cells, but the disadvantage is that it can also kill healthy cells, resulting in significant side effects.

Chemotherapeutic drugs mainly include doxorubicin-based drugs, cyclophosphamide, fluorouracil, and paclitaxel. If drug resistance or disease progression occurs, drugs like docetaxel, gemcitabine, and others can be selected. Additionally, there are oral chemotherapy drugs, such as tegafur, capecitabine, commonly used for gastrointestinal malignancies. Generally, chemotherapy is accompanied by monitoring changes in blood tests, which may lead to reactions like bone marrow suppression that require appropriate management.

1. Chemotherapy can reduce the risk of death. Since cancer cells grow, divide, and spread rapidly, ordinary drugs cannot effectively inhibit this expansion. Therefore, chemotherapy drugs are used to control the cancerous cells in cancer patients, preventing their spread and progression, thereby reducing the risk of death associated with cancer cell proliferation. However, due to the side effects of the chemicals contained in chemotherapy on the human body, normal cells may be damaged. Therefore, before chemotherapy, it is necessary to assess the patient's physical health to determine their suitability for the treatment.

2. The benefits of chemotherapy outweigh its disadvantages. Cancer cells differ from normal cells, and their growth rate is significantly faster. Chemotherapy allows for the detection of cancerous cells in the blood, enabling the selective elimination of rapidly growing cells. However, since hair follicles and hematopoietic cells also belong to rapidly growing cells, this can lead to side effects after chemotherapy.

3. Chemotherapy can improve patient survival rates. After chemotherapy, patients may experience a reduction in the size of their tumors, relief from symptoms, and effective suppression of cancer cell spread, thereby extending their survival time. This additional time may provide an opportunity to find better methods to address the harm caused by cancer.

4. Some advanced cancers are not yet curable. Many patients mistakenly believe that since chemotherapy cannot cure cancer, they should avoid it. However, while chemotherapy may not cure cancer, it can prolong a patient's lifespan, control the spread of cancer cells, and reduce the likelihood of cancerous lesions, thus providing more time for treatment.