Does End-Stage Chemotherapy Improve Quality of Life? (2024)

FAQs

Does End-Stage Chemotherapy Improve Quality of Life? ›

However, chemotherapy may be helpful in shrinking the cancer, improving or completely eliminating distressing symptoms caused by the cancer for a period of time and helping you live longer and with a better quality of life. The use of chemotherapy in these situations is called palliative chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy alone had an 11-year shorter life expectancy versus a 6-year shorter one when diagnosed in the 1990s. Radiotherapy alone had a 21-year shorter conditional life expectancy versus an 18-year one when diagnosed in the 1990s.

Chemotherapy cycles may be planned in such a way that there will be 5 days of chemo with 2 days of rest, all within 7 days (roughly). Maintaining drug levels: 7-day rule helps ensure that there is enough chemo in the body to fight cancer.

Chemotherapy can be administered a number of ways but common ways include orally and intravenously. The chemotherapy itself stays in the body within 2 -3 days of treatment but there are short-term and long-term side effects that patients may experience.

On average, chemotherapy accelerated aging by approximately 17 years of life span, with acceleration of 23 to 27 years for those treated with anthracycline-based treatment.

To compare, 31% of people who had better quality of life when the study started who didn't receive palliative chemotherapy had worse quality of life in their final week of life. So palliative chemotherapy seemed to decrease quality of life for people who were in relatively good health at the beginning of the study.

While age is a risk factor for the development of cancer, the treatment of cancer, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy, can also accelerate biological aging processes.

Chemo belly describes how a person's abdomen can become bloated, gassy, and uncomfortable during and following chemotherapy treatments. The condition often ends following the completion of treatment. It can occur due to changes in the gut bacteria as well as changes in how food moves through the digestive tract.

Cycles of treatment

A cycle is the time between one round of treatment until the start of the next. During a course of chemotherapy, you usually have around 4 to 8 cycles of treatment. After each round of treatment you have a break. This allows your body to recover.

If your cancer is responding to the treatment, your doctor will likely recommend continuing the chemotherapy until the cancer stops growing or you develop unacceptable side effects from the treatment.

Does your body ever recover from chemotherapy? ›

Most chemotherapy side effects go away in time, but some can linger and require monitoring or treatment. Possible long-term side effects of chemo include damage to your heart and peripheral neuropathy, in which damaged nerves can cause pain, weakness or numbness in the extremities – arms, hands, legs and feet.

Chemotherapy leaves the body through urine, vomit, blood, stool, sweat, mucus and sexual fluids.

Doesn't the benefit of chemotherapy decrease with age? In most cases, it does not. A healthy older person often has the same chances of responding to treatment or being cured than a younger one.

Chemotherapy is unlikely to have much of an effect on Stage IV (metastatic) cancers, whereas it can add months or even years to a person's life if they have been diagnosed with Stage I – III cancer.

Chemotherapy drugs can damage healthy, fast-growing cells, such as the new blood cells in bone marrow or cells in the mouth, stomach, skin, hair and reproductive organs. When healthy cells are damaged, it causes side effects.

Chemotherapy can cause long-term changes in the body, months or years after treatment. In some cases, the side effects can last a lifetime, such as when chemo causes long-term damage to the heart, lungs, kidneys, or reproductive organs.

Most chemotherapy side effects are temporary. They get better once your treatment is over. For some people chemotherapy can cause long term changes in the body months or years after treatment.

A return to normalcy is typical, but it takes a while – usually six months or so. “All who have done chemo do finally get back to normal,” Patricia said. “Treatment for breast cancer can take a whole year, but six months after it ends, life comes back – incisions heal, hair grows back, chemo brain fog lifts.”

If you were treated with certain types of chemotherapy, you can also have many of the same problems. Some problems go away after treatment. Others last a long time, while some may never go away. Some problems may develop months or years after your treatment has ended.