Patients Can Avoid Negative Chemotherapy Side Effects Through PET Scan

Chemotherapy is the primary method of cancer treatment. The procedure uses drugs designed to kill fast-growing cancer cells. Inadvertently, however, chemo drugs can also damage healthy cells throughout the body, causing certain side effects. Most common of these are fatigue, hair loss, infection, anemia, nausea, easy bruising, constipation, diarrhea, appetite or weight changes, fertility problems and more.

For patients diagnosed with lymphoma, there is hope for avoiding side effects yet. A new study from the New England Journal of Medicine has found that PET scan can spare patients the severe secondary effects.

The study was conducted among patients with advanced Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Europe and Australia. 1200 patients who had cycles of standard chemotherapy were scanned before and after treatment. Those who have shown clear scans were divided into two groups that would receive different types of chemotherapy – one with ABDV and the other with AVD.

For the duration of 41.2 months, the researchers noted changes while treatment was administered. Patients with positive PET were given more aggressive treatment of escalation therapy with bleomycin and other drugs. Bleomycin is considered as an important drug for the treatment of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but it is known to have a risk of severe side effects on the lungs both short-term and long-term. There is also a risk of scarring that can cause breathing difficulties in patients.

The study concluded that the inclusion of bleomycin in the first two cycles of chemo may still positively contribute to controlling Hodkin’s lymphoma. On the other hand, omission after negative results on an interim PET scan only has a minimal risk of treatment failure. The researchers observed that removing bleomycin greatly reduced the occurrence of toxic effects with the patients who received AVD. There were reduced incidence of fatigue and respiratory problems, leading to better preservation of the lungs’ ability to exclude carbon monoxide.

Researchers also found that PET scan can help doctors identify which patients would need stronger chemotherapy. As a result, patients can be spared from tissue damage due to radiotherapy, developing second cancers and severe side effects such as infertility.



Sources:

Chemotherapy Side Effects, Cancer.org

PET Scan Can Avoid Toxic Chemotherapy, Improve QoL, AJMC.com