Use a soft-bristled toothbrush. Use salt water or peroxide as a mouth wash. Eat soft non-spicy foods of medium to cold temperature. If the pain doesn't go away ask your doctor about using a topical pain reliever before meals. Easy bruising or bleeding This could be a sign of serious problems so you should contact your doctor right away.
Your doctor needs to know about the following conditions in order to decide whether to recommend cytotoxic drugs:. Azathioprine Imuran is usually given in pill form tablets daily or by injection. The dose may be lowered after the desired response is obtained. Cyclophosphamide Cytoxan is usually given in pill form or intravenously according to a prescribed schedule. It is probably the strongest cytotoxic drug.
It may cause additional side effects such as cystitis inflammation of the bladder marked by blood in the urine and painful urination as well as bladder cancer. Methotrexate Rheumatrex is usually given in pill form and sometimes by weekly injections.
This drug can cause additional side effects such as liver scarring cirrhosis and a lung problem similar to pneumonia which causes shortness of breath cough and a fever.
You are here Home Cytotoxic Drugs. Last updated : Thursday, December 30, Overview What are they? The three cytotoxic drugs usually used to treat arthritis and related conditions are: Generic name Brand name Azathioprine Imuran Cyclophosphamide Cytoxan Methotrexate Rheumatrex These drugs are usually given in pill form but some may be given intravenously or by injection.
Uses of Cytotoxic Drugs Conditions treated by cytotoxic drugs Cytotoxic drugs can be used to treat many forms of arthritis including juvenile rheumatoid arthritis , psoriatic arthritis , rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus as well as conditions such as steroid-resistant polymyositis polymyositis or dermatomyositis, Wegener's granulomatosis polyarteritis or some forms of vasculitis.
Warnings If cytotoxic drugs are recommended for you be sure to consult a doctor who has experience using these drugs. When considering treatment with cytotoxic drugs you your doctor and your family will want to consider factors such as: the severity of your disease the potential benefits of the drug the potential side effects As with other drugs there are no guarantees that cytotoxic drugs will work for you.
Tips for taking these drugs Taking cytotoxic drugs incorrectly can result in serious side effects. Here are some tips for taking them: Learn about the medicine: Find out all you can about the medicine you're taking its risks and its benefits. Talk to your doctor about the drug and read the package insert that comes with the drug.
Take the right amount: Take only the amount your doctor tells you to take and take it exactly as prescribed. If you accidentally take too much contact your doctor at once. If you vomit shortly after taking a dose or miss a dose for other reasons check with your doctor to find out when to take another dose.
In this sense, a cytotoxic agent may be differentiated from one that is cytostatic. A cytostatic medication would, in contrast, inhibit cell division and growth but would not result in cell death directly.
Cytotoxic drugs work by interrupting cells at particular places in the growth cycle. The reason that most chemotherapy regimens include a combination of drugs combination chemotherapy , and that most chemotherapy cycles are repeated, is because cells are in various places in the division process. Not all drugs used to treat cancer are cytotoxic. Chemotherapy drugs are designed to kill all rapidly growing cells, including normal cells in the body that divide rapidly. Some of the newer types of cancer drugs, such as targeted therapies and immunotherapies, are not considered cytotoxic.
These drugs work either to interfere with a particular pathway in the growth of cancer cells, or to stimulate or use the immune system in some way to fight cancer. Some immunotherapies, such as CAR T, may be considered cytotoxic in a way, as they take advantage of the cytotoxic actions of the body's own cytotoxic T cells. There are other cytotoxic substances used for a wide array of functions. As with cytotoxic chemotherapy drugs, this simply means that they kill cells.
Cytotoxic agents are not just created to destroy cancers and control diseases. Our bodies also manufacture cytotoxic T-cells cytotoxic T lymphocytes. One of the most rapidly advancing areas of cancer research is now focusing on harnessing and stimulating our own cytotoxic cells to fight cancer in our bodies. Humans are not alone in their use of cytotoxic T cells.
Some venoms, such as those emitted by vipers, cobras, and violin spiders, are also cytotoxic. Cytotoxic agents can kill cells in several ways. They may harm the cell so that its cell membrane is weakened and the cell explodes lysis or they may interfere with cell division so the cell stops growing and dividing.
The terminology can be very confusing when looking at drugs or other substances that damage cells or DNA in cells. There is much confusion between the terms cytotoxic and genotoxic. The term cytotoxic refers to the ability of a substance to cause damage to cells.
The term genotoxic refers to the ability of a substance to directly damage DNA in cells. When DNA is damaged, it may or may not die. In fact, the persistence of cells harboring damaged DNA mutations that are not repaired underlies the development of cancer.
The anticancer effect of a cytostatic drug is provided by its mechanism of action. To understand how cytostatics work, it is important to know about the life cycle of a cell, regardless of whether it is healthy or sick, benign or malignant.
The life of a cell is determined by the so-called cell cycle. Many different signalling pathways, which involve numerous proteins with various tasks, control — like an inner clock — the phases of the cell cycle.
Cancer cells have lost their inner clock. Chemo drugs can be grouped by how they work, their chemical structure, and their relationships to other drugs. Some drugs work in more than one way, and may belong to more than one group.
Note: not all chemotherapy drugs are listed here. Knowing how the drug works is important in predicting side effects from it. This helps doctors decide which drugs are likely to work well together.
If more than one drug will be used, this information also helps them plan exactly when each of the drugs should be given in which order and how often. Alkylating agents keep the cell from reproducing making copies of itself by damaging its DNA. These drugs work in all phases of the cell cycle and are used to treat many different cancers, including cancers of the lung, breast, and ovary as well as leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin disease, multiple myeloma, and sarcoma.
Because these drugs damage DNA, they can affect the cells of the bone marrow which make new blood cells. In rare cases, this can lead to leukemia. The risk of leukemia after getting alkylating agents is highest about 5 to 10 years after treatment. Nitrosoureas are a group of alkylating agents that have a special action. The other alkylating agents listed above cannot travel into the brain, but nitrosoureas are able to do so. They can enter the brain because they are able to cross through the area known as the blood-brain barrier, a special area that keeps most drugs out of the brain.
This action makes these drugs useful in treating certain types of brain tumors. When this happens, the DNA cannot make copies of itself, and a cell cannot reproduce. They are commonly used to treat leukemias, cancers of the breast, ovary, and the intestinal tract, as well as other types of cancer.
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