Monitor Chemotherapy Treatments
For anyone undergoing chemotherapy, their oncologist-or related consulting medical professional-will monitor their treatments in order to ensure that not only is the chemotherapy successful, but also that there are no substantially detrimental side effects. This monitoring, which may include physical exams, blood tests, scans and x-rays, is essential so that additional health problems do not arise due to the chemotherapy treatments themselves.
Instructions
Monitoring Chemotherapy Treatments
1. Conduct blood tests to monitor a patient's white blood count, red blood count and platelet count. In addition, your doctor should make sure that you undergo blood tests to measure the healthy function of crucial organs, such as the liver and kidneys. Chemotherapy can affect all of these-blood, the kidneys, and the liver-and so it is important to continuously monitor them throughout treatment.
2. Measure tumor markers, which are produced in the bodies of some patients by either a cancerous or benign tumor, throughout chemotherapy to track the progress of treatment. Tumor markers should also be measured during follow-up appointments to ensure that cancerous tumors have not returned. There are a number of different tumor markers that doctors may find in a patient and measure to track the progress of treatment.
3. Undergo fluorescent probes. A recent medical breakthrough, scientists have developed this cutting-edge technology to monitor the dissolution of cancerous cells in the body. Through this method, doctors can monitor the success of chemotherapy by injecting probes that shed a fluorescent light when cells-in this case cancerous tumor cells-begin to self-destruct through a method called apoptosis. When doctors see this fluorescent light, they can conclude that the treatment is working, as the cancerous cells are breaking down and, in effect, "dying" within the patient's body.
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