Cancer treatment Flashcards
What are hte ultiate cases of death in caner pts
secondary infection, organ failure, hemorrhage, and undetermined factors
What are most treatment plans contain
surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy (some have hormone therapy or immunotherapy)
About ___ of all people with cancer receive
radiation therapy as part of their cancer treatment
half
How does radiation therapy work/
Uses high-energy rays to damage DNA of cells, interfering with cell division and growth
what is external radiation therapy
radiation comes from a large
machine outside the body that aims the beams
at precise points on the body to destroy as few
normal cells as possible
what is internal radiation therapy
radiation is placed inside the body in specific tissue to
destroy as few normal cells as possible.
what are the most common side effects of radiation?
hair loss and skin irritation at the treatment site and fatigue
About ___ of cancer patients receive chemotherapy treatment.
half
What kind of treatment is chemo considered?
systmeic
how does chemo works
uses medications that target
rapidly dividing cells and, therefore, kills cancer cells and some normal cells.
What are some normal cells that repilcate fast?
blood cells, bone marrow cells, cells of hair follicles, and cells lining the digestive tract
what are the side effects of chemo
anemia, hair loss, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea
How does hormone therapy work?
some cancer need hormones to gorw so surgery may be used to remove the source ofthe hormone or use hormone therapy meds
- exL adminsitration of durgs that suppresses hormone sunthesis like LHRH antagonsit or aromatase inhibiotrs, drugs that blocks action of hormones or surgical reoval of hormone-producing glands like ooporectomy and orchiectomy
What is immunotherapy?
it seeks to strenghten and stimulate the immune system so it can recognize and kill cancer cells
1. trigger immune response against tumor cell
2. deliver letah dose o radiation to cell
3. release deadly cemical insdie cell
what are monoclonal antibodies
synthetic antibodies that are designed to bind to a specific antigen on a cancer cell
(some attach to cancer cells and signal immune system to destroy will others carry drugs or radioactive isotopies directly to cancer cells)
At least ________ of all cancers are preventable.
1/3
how to prevent caner?
dont smoke, maintain a healthy wt, be physiall active, eat healthy, dont drink a lot, protect ur skin from UV, get immunized, avoid risky behaviors (safe sex, dont share needles), get cancer screenings
how to relief symptoms like obstruction?
- tumor resection
- bypass
- stenting
- laser ablation
how does chemotherapy work?
- use of meds to destroy cancer cells
- most of drugs affect cell re[lication
- chemo is most effective
- normal cells also get destroyed = s/s if chemo
- side effects inculde alopecia, anorexia, vomiting, diarrhea, anemia, bruising and infertility
- combo drugs in cucles that include treatment period followed by recovery period
- mostly outpaitient
- cells can develop resistence = need for new drugs or treatments
Types of immunotherapy for cancer?
- trastuzumab (herceptin) for breast cancers that overexpress human epidermal growth facotr
- rituximab (ritxuan) for non-Hodgkin lymphoma
- Alemtuzumab (Campath) for chronic lymphocytic leulemia
- ipilimumab (yervoy) for metastatic melanoma
- CDK4 and CDK6 inhibitors (cyclin-dependent kinases) : Abemaciclib (Verzenio), Palbociclib (IBRANCE), Ribociclib (Kisqal)
What is a cancer vaccine?
- isolate proteins from cancer cells when injected into pt with cancer, can trigger an immune response in the pt to attack and destroy the cancer cells
- other attemplt to inject substance that will cause a more generalized immune response within tumor tssue to destroy it
What is a cancer vaccine that has FDA approval?
- for metastatic hormone refractory-prostate cancer w/ minimal symptoms
- sipuleucel-T (Provenge)
What is hospice care?
- care developed to help pt and fam deal w/ life-threatening illness
consequences of cancer therapy?
- pt r predisposed to developing other malignancies, esp lymphoma and leukemias
- delayed growth and cognitive impairment
What is stereotactic Radiosurgery?
- alternative to conventional radiation therapy (RT) for cancer tumors
- many beams of low dose radiation from diff angles to converge at target so target gets intense radiation but normal tissue only gets a little
- less toxicity, only need few treatments
What is CyberKnife?
- precise radiation treatment in SRS tech that provides increased access to tumors particularly in brain, base of skil or spine but can be anywhere on body + more relaxed treatment
- real-time imaging + robotics so when pt moves beams adkust
- no invasive external fixation w/ traditional radiosurgery
- RT is preferred when large tumor or when tumor is near cranial nere or speech/ lanugage center of brain
Ex of drugs that targets oncogene?
- imatinib (Gleevec) which inhibits BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase (abn enzyme) in chronic myelogenous leukemeia
