Osteosarcoma Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a treatment which is used to treat cancer. This drug therapy is helpful in treating many types of cancers. But the medications involved and the dosage will differ as per the type of cancer. Have you ever heard about osteosarcoma? It is a cancer of bone. There are many types of cancer in reality. These include colon cancer, liver cancer, blood cancer, breast cancer and so on. Just like chemotherapy is useful in treating other types of cancer. It will also be useful in treating osteosarcoma cancer.

This type of cancer is very common among boys, especially teenagers who are growing. And in most cases, it occurs in knee. This occurs due to DNA problems that occur in the growing cells. There are no means with which this cancer can be prevented. But chemotherapy is a fruitful option which can give relief in symptoms of this problem. In the initial stage when these drugs are used there can be elimination of cancer. In this treatment, there is preoperative (neo-adjuvant) chemotherapy, surgery, and postoperative (adjuvant) chemotherapy used as per the need of the hour. These adjuvant chemotherapy treatments help in dealing with the situation. These therapies help in increasing the survival chances of the patients suffering from osteosarcoma chemotherapy. In today’s’ times for treating osteosarcoma there is use of adjuvant chemotherapy. This is effective for both adults as well as children.

With such high grade treatments there is much improvement in the condition of the patient. You must understand that common chemotherapy treatment consists of 5 weeks cycle. And drugs that are being administered are cisplatin, doxorubicin and methotrexate. But these medications come with a few side effects. To control side effects as associated with treatment there is one other drug also used in this and that is folinic acid. And this drug is given for 2 to 3 days after the methotrexate treatment. This treatment preferably needs to be given in the hospital and thus when the patient faces any kind of side effects actions can be taken quickly and promptly. Thanks to the chemotherapy treatment that even the patients of malignant osteosarcoma can survive. Its true that the side effects of this may make life pathetic and may diminish the life quality. But it is not same with all the patients. Different patients may react differently to the chemotherapy treatment. In some patients the side effects are mild and in some it may be very severe and unbearable. Statistics suggest that around 2/3rd of the patients who have this problem can almost survive due to the chemotherapy treatment.

But if you are feeling quite frightened due to the fact that the side effects will make your life miserable then in such a case it would be apt to talk to your doctor and get all the possible information from him in this regards. It will help you to get mentally prepared. You may even talk to the counselor if you want so that you can get the idea about risks as well as the benefits.