The use of chemotherapy for cervical cancer is a common treatment plan or an essential part of one. If radiation therapy or surgery alone are not effective options for one reason or another, then chemotherapy is prescribed. It can also be used to prepare for radiation therapy, by shrinking the tumor. If the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, chemotherapy is used to help control it and reduce the symptoms.
Cervical cancer is caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is a common infection. Not every woman who has HPV will go on to get cervical cancer, however. It can be treated with surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, either on their own or in combination depending on the stage and aggressiveness of the cancer.
Chemotherapy for cervical cancer is a treatment that uses anti-cancer drugs. The drugs detect the cancer cells and destroy them; often the drugs cannot distinguish between healthy and unhealthy cells, which is when side effects like hair loss occur. The treatment can also slow down the progression of the cancer after it has spread. There have been studies that show that using chemoradiation, a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, increases the effectiveness of the radiotherapy. As a result, this is often the treatment of choice, especially for locally advanced cervical cancer.
In particular, women with advanced or recurrent cervical cancer and those with locally advanced cancer benefit from the use of chemotherapy. Chemoradiation has also been reported to help women who suffer from this type of cancer to live longer, particularly if the disease is still in the early stages. While surgery and radiation target the region where most of the cancer is concentrated, chemotherapy can reach other cancer cells that have not yet been discovered. It also relieves some of the symptoms of the cancer by controlling the spread and relieving the pressure additional cancer cells can put on organs, nerves and blood cells.
There are some negative side effects associated with the use of chemotherapy such as nausea, diarrhea, fatigue and hair loss. The drugs usually used in chemotherapy for cervical cancer specifically can lead to kidney problems, so a blood test is required before each treatment session. There are drugs that are available to alleviate the side effects, however, so the use of chemotherapy for cervical cancer has its benefits and its drawbacks. A thorough investigation of these needs to be made by the patient and doctor before proceeding to the best possible treatment plan.