Treatment or Detriment?

A Brief Overlook of Chemotherapy Advancement

Ryan Argetsinger, 10/27/24

During World War II, the German military launched an air attack on an Italian port, resulting in the dissemination of 40 ships. While docked at the port, the SS John Harvey exploded and expelled mustard gas shells into the periphery of the ocean around the port. For all of the surviving crew forced to swim through the explosion, the mustard gas resulted in the burning of several of the crew members. Although the autopsies displayed a gruesome scene, they did reveal some of the soldiers’ rapidly dividing white blood cells, leading to physicians hypothesizing about its potential effects on cancer cells. 

While this discovery eventually led to what is now known as “chemotherapy”, our understanding of the side effects and efficacy of treatment on cancer was not fully understood throughout its clinical development in the 1950s. Today, more than 100 chemotherapy medications are available and show capable solutions to treating tumors and cancer growth. However, the direct implications and side effects that chemotherapy has on patient health do bring up a concern that may not only be unsettling but also raises questions in regard to patient safety. 

Chemotherapy kills cancer cells in a variety of settings and also can be used to target specific cells that are rapidly dividing. Although the treatment is designed to affect only cancer cells, the effects can be holistic. Side effects can range from hair loss, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, pain, and easy bruising, to name a few. In addition, side effects can result in heart problems, infertility, kidney problems, and nerve damage (Chemo-induced peripheral neuropathy). The side effects that can occur are extensive and far-reaching, which doesn’t even include the effects of cancer on the body. Cancer can essentially accelerate sarcopenia in patients, reduce energy availability in the body, and lead to system failures throughout the body. It’s essential to keep in mind when treating cancer that there are factors of treatment that should be addressed and need to be considered for holistic care. If patients are receiving major side effects from their main form of treatment, then how can we improve patient care and quality of treatment? These are questions that have been addressed when side effects that were significant to treatment outcome had been analyzed, which is why chemotherapy, in addition to surgery, immunotherapy, and additional medical options have allowed for innovative adjustments and additional treatments for these side effects. Patients are now given a variety of utilities that enhance their treatment options and mitigate the potential for dior changes in symptoms. 

Although chemotherapy is not a perfect treatment and results in a wide range of side effects that affect general health and sometimes treatment for the targeted cancer, treatment options are improving. The specificity and limitations of side effects are being improved through specific cellular engineering, which not only limits the total effects of chemotherapy but becomes more effective in targeting only tissues that are affected by cancer and tumor growth. 

References

Mayo Clinic, "Chemotherapy"

https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/chemotherapy/about/pac-20385033 

MD Anderson Cancer Center, "The evolution of chemo: From a brutal beginning to a tolerable today"

https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/conquest/the-evolution-of-chemo.h36-1590624.html