The pharmaceutical industry has come up with lots of chemotherapy drugs classified according to the chemical structure, the working principle and the possible associations with other medication. Most drugs are based on chemicals obtained from plants and this very origin or source leaves room to further classification. Don’t be surprised to find a drug classified in more categories, because there are many such cases in the medical world. Doctors have a very precise duty of getting fully informed about chemotherapy drugs and know how to combine them or in what order to prescribe them to cancer patients.
A first category of chemotherapy drugs is the one relying on alkylating agents. These drugs are pretty damaging to the bone marrow because they destroy the DNA to prevent the cancerous cells from reproduction. Lots of cancer cases get treated with this kind of chemotherapy drugs, with the mention that doses are always kept low because of the risk to develop leukemia up to ten years after the cessation of the treatment. Platinum based medication is classified together with alkylating agents because of the similarity in their action.
Antimetabolites are another distinct class of chemotherapy drugs. They are prescribed for the treatment of ovary and intestinal cancers, breast tumors and leukemia and they also interfere not only with the DNA but also with the RNA. The anthracyclines are another variety of chemotherapy drugs included into the antibiotic group. Their action is directed against enzymes that contribute to the DNA replication and they are encountered in a wide variety of cancer treatments.
Next is the category of inhibitors. The topoisomerase inhibitors help in separating and copying strands of DNA efficiently treating leukemia. With a more natural preponderance because of their herbal origin, mitotic inhibitors prevent the production of proteins necessary for the cancer cells growth. However, cancer patients undergo a huge risk with any chemical treatment they follow: these chemotherapy drugs may cause peripheral nerve damage to mention just one the health threats you may fear.
Finally, the corticosteroids are chemotherapy drugs based on hormones and meant to treat lymphoma, leukemia and myeloma together with other diseases. In addition to decreasing the speed of cell growth, they also have a good impact on the body’s response to chemotherapy by preventing nausea, vomiting or other types of allergic reactions. These types of drugs may be used as chemotherapy ones or not, depending on the purpose they are supposed to serve.
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Tags: cancer, chemotherapy, health, medicine, treatment