Oral Chemotherapy: The Good And The Bad

Most cancer patients immediately associate the word “chemotherapy” with regular visits to infusion centers where the medicine is administered to them through IV (intravenous), which may be seemingly painful.

Oral chemotherapy has been seen as an option in treating almost all cancer types such as:

• Breast cancer

• Leukemia

• Colorectal cancer

• Multiple myeloma

• Lymphoma

• Prostrate cancer

• Renal cancer

Oral chemotherapy, just like IV or other types of chemo, helps to destroy or weaken the cancer cells only because it’s administered as a pill form of drug cancer patients take at home against those in a hospital setting.

Advantage(s) of Oral Chemo

Primarily, oral chemotherapy is a more convenient type of chemotherapy treatment as cancer patients won’t have to visit an infusion center to get their treatment. It also may reduce the number of blood draws they would have to go through.

Disadvantages of Oral Chemo

While having oral chemo as an option for treating cancer cells has its advantages, there are also numerous disadvantages such as patients tend to miss out on dosage or not taking it as they are instructed.

An older 2012 study states that the longer a person’s oral chemotherapy treatment lasts, the more likely he/she is to eventually discontinue it without the guidance of the doctor which could possibly lead to the treatment becoming less effective, worsening the side effects and even high dosages

Another disadvantage of this treatment is that the pills can be extremely dangerous. Chemotherapy pills may need to be administered or handled in a very specific way such as wearing gloves when giving the treatment or medication, according to the American Cancer Society

Side Effects

While chemotherapy pills help destroy the cancer cells, they can possibly damage the healthy cells as well and their side effects are quite similar to the traditional ones, varying on the type of drug.

Most common side effects include:

• insomnia/trouble sleeping

• fatigue

• general weakness

• nausea/vomiting

• loss of appetite

• vulnerability to infection and illness (due to compromised immune system)

Less common but serious side effects include kidney damage or weakened heart.

My Experience with Oral Chemotherapy

I’ve had my fair share of experiencing a few side effects with the chemo pills I’ve been taking like the feeling of nausea and wanting to throw up, sometimes even fatigue and loss of appetite.

Taking Imatinib (Glivec) made me felt like I’m always bloated or throwing up everything I ate and easily feeling tired and do less activities.