Research Paper on:
Complications and Side Effects from Chemotherapy

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
carmustine and the antimetabolites fludarabine and floxuridine, it is has been found that although these chemotherapeutic agents are used in the treatment of various forms of cancer, they can also  cause a great many side effects ranging from nausea, hair loss, bloody stools and urine, back and abdominal pain and even secondary cancer which may appear months or years after  the administration of the treatment. Patients taking chemotherapeutic agents are also warned that they may cause birth defects during pregnancy or affect the children of mothers breast-feeding. Nevertheless, chemotherapeutic agents  have been found to cure over 20 percent of new cancers diagnosed and with proper caution by the patient, physician and administering staff, the patient may overcome the cancer with  this form of treatment. Chemotherapy The understanding of chemotherapy and chemotherapeutic agents requires researchers to know the principles of tumor biology, cellular kinetics, pharmacology and drug resistance in order to  apply the appropriate treatment for patients suffering with cancer. Luckily, because of the development of chemotherapeutic agents, over 20 percent of new cancers can be cured by the application of  chemotherapy alone (Page, Principles, 2002). The study of cellular kinetics has shown that the normal cell cycle is composed of four phases  and chemotherapeutic agents are classified depending on which phase in the cell cycle they are active. Some chemotherapeutic agents are non-specific in their cell cycle, such as alkylating agents, are  the fraction of the cell kill depends on the dosage of the drug. Cell cycle specific agents however have a set number of cells which they can kill and an  increase in dosage will not increase the cell kill (Page, Principles, 2002). In the study of tumor kinetics has shown that tumors exhibit different growth depending on the proportion of