Chemotherapy Flashcards
Complications
Nausea and vomiting Hair loss Infection Liver dysfunction Renal dysfunction
When are you likely to get tumour lysis syndrome?
During first course of treatment
Management of bacterial infection whilst on chemotherapy
Broad spectrum antibiotics (particularly covering gram -ve organisms) as soon as the patient gets neutropenic fever
Prolonged neutropenia means you are susceptible to which type of infections
Fungal
Infection caused by chemotherapy - if persisting fever is unresponsive to anti-bacterial agents (antibiotics) then what do you do?
Use an antifungal
Late effects of chemotherapy
Loss of fertility
Cardiomyopathy with anthracyclines
General immediate side effects from cytotoxic drugs
Bone marrow suppression
Gut mucosal damage
Hair loss
Drug specific side effects - cis-platinum
Nephrotoxicity
Long term side effects from cytotoxic drugs - alkylating agents
Infertility
Secondary malignancy
Long term side effects from cytotoxic drugs - anthracyclines
Cardiomyopathy
Why does chemotherapy fail?
Drug resistance mechanisms
Source of stem cells for stem cell transplantation
Blood vs bone marrow
Side effect of platinum based chemotherapy
Nephrotoxicity
Side effect of
Neurotoxicity
Side effect of anthracycline chemotherapy
Cardiotoxicity
