What is neoadjuvant chemotherapy?

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is a form of chemotherapy giving cancer patients before they are to undergo surgery to remove cancer or tumor. The main purpose of neoadjuvant chemotherapy is to reduce the size of a large tumor and try to make the tumor small enough to prevent extensive damage to the surrounding tissues during operation. It also helps surgeons to better distinguish healthy tissues from cancer, allowing more cancer cells to be removed during surgery.

Chemotherapy is a method of treatment of disease, especially cancer, using drugs or chemicals. The main objective is to kill cancer cells by stopping their rapid distribution or preventing cancer repetition in many patients. On the other hand, the term adjuvans means additional treatment to increase the effect of other treatment, such as surgery. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is sometimes confused with adjuvant chemotherapy because both are used for cancer treatment. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy, howeverIt often serves before surgery, while adjuvant chemotherapy is generally administered after surgical removal of the tumor to prevent cancer. For example, in breast cancer, neoadjuvant chemotherapy allows surgeons to perform lumectomy, where only a small cut to remove the breast tumor instead of performing mastectomy, which is complete removal of the affected breast. The former procedure brings more cosmetically acceptable results.

drugs used for neoadjuvant chemotherapy are usually given to patients with mouth cancer or intravenous methods where drugs are injected directly into the patient's vein. Most chemotherapeutic drugs have toxic effects on many cells inside the body, especially cells are rapidly divided, such as cancer cells. Healthy cells of gastrointestinal tract (GIT), mucous membranes, bone marrow and reproductive system are often also affected by chemotherapy.

non -participatingThe effects that usually experience in patients after procedure include nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, mouth ulcers, tendencies of bleeding, hair loss and changes in menstrual cycles for women. These side effects are often expected, but occur temporarily because healthy cells are able to repair themselves and restore normal functions. Another negative side effect sometimes caused by neoadjuvant chemotherapy is immunosuppression, a condition in which the immune system is very weak. Patients with a weak immune system are unable to fight invasive organisms, thereby increasing patients more susceptible to the development of frequent infections.