Chemoprotective agent

A chemo-protective agent[1] is any drug that helps to reduce the side effects on the body while undergoing chemotherapy. These agents protect specific body parts from the harmful anti-cancer treatments that could potentially cause permanent damage to important bodily tissues. Chemo-protective agents have only recently been introduced as a factor involved with chemotherapy with the intent to assist those cancer patients that require treatment, which as an end result, improves the patients quality of life. There have been few studies[2] on these agents though most of them come to the same conclusion, so what is known about them isn't very broad. Information including examples[3], risks, and more are the most researched aspects of Chemo protective agents.

Amifostine; A common chemo-protective agent that has been approved by the FDA.

Examples[4][5] include:

Risks
Chemo-protective agents are used to combat the negative effects of the chemotherapeutic medicine shown above.

Chemo-protective agents are common drugs and like many other drugs, may have side effects of their own. Each agent has different side effects though the most common consist of dizziness, sleepiness, nausea, fever, etc.[6] It is important to discuss the side effects of these drugs with a doctor before using them to combat any type of chemotherapy to insure the drug will benefit each and every patient.

References
  1. "NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms". National Cancer Institute. 2011-02-02. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  2. Wu, Y. J. (2004-11-04). "The Chemoprotective Agent N-Acetylcysteine Blocks Cisplatin-Induced Apoptosis through Caspase Signaling Pathway". Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. 312 (2): 424–431. doi:10.1124/jpet.104.075119. ISSN 0022-3565. PMID 15496615.
  3. "Novel Small-molecule TNF-a Modulators as Chemoprotective Agents | SBIR.gov". www.sbir.gov. Retrieved 2019-04-30.
  4. Cancer, Cleveland Clinic. "Chemoprotective Agents: Amifostine, Mesna, Dexrazoxane - What is Chemotherapy? - Chemocare". chemocare.com. Retrieved 2016-10-13.
  5. Bhushan, Vikas; Le, Tao (2016-01-01). First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 2016. ISBN 9781259587375.
  6. "Common Side Effects of Ethyol (Amifostine) Drug Center". RxList. Retrieved 2019-03-25.

 This article incorporates public domain material from the U.S. National Cancer Institute document "Dictionary of Cancer Terms".


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