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When facing various treatments, cancer patients will be afraid that the treatment will not have an effect on them. Especially when faced with chemotherapy, patients often have questions like: "I feel that I have no side effects after chemotherapy, is it because the chemotherapy is not effective?" In fact, the side effects of chemotherapy have nothing to do with the efficacy! So, whether chemotherapy is effective or not, what mainly depends on it?
1. What are the main factors to consider to determine whether chemotherapy is effective?
First, we need to conduct a self-assessment to see if the symptoms of abdominal distension and pain have been relieved, whether the appetite and physical strength have returned to normal, or whether some physical pain has been relieved. If these symptoms have improved, then the effect of chemotherapy is good for you.
In addition, there are some indicators that we need to pay attention to. For example, we need to use CT color ultrasound to check the degree of reduction of the original pleural effusion and ascites; we also need to check whether the tumor marker indicators have declined; in addition, we also need to use imaging to check and to see if the tumor volume has shrunk and whether the metastases have reduced or disappeared.
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When should cancer patients receive maintenance treatment after chemotherapy?
When to start maintenance treatment after chemotherapy, there are two aspects to consider: one is the recovery time from the side effects of chemotherapy, the other is the efficacy. First of all, , the side effects of chemotherapy and the side effects of PARP inhibitors, commonly used drugs for maintenance therapy, are highly overlapping. Common side effects of chemotherapy, including thrombocytopenia , leukopenia, red blood cell reduction, and liver function damage, are also side effects of PARP inhibitors with a high probability of occurring.
If the side effects of the two drugs overlap, it will be more dangerous for the patient, so we need some time to wait for the side effects of chemotherapy to subside before doing maintenance.
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At the same time, we also need to consider whether too long a time will affect the efficacy. We were originally worried that the length of the window would affect the efficacy of maintenance treatment. , but a recent maintenance therapy clinical study of niraparib involving nearly 400 ovarian cancer patients showed that there was no significant difference in progression-free survival whether it was 0-7 weeks, 7-9 weeks, 9-11 weeks or 11-12 weeks, so the start time of maintenance therapy had no impact on the efficacy.
However, at present, the recommended start time of maintenance treatment in the clinical application guidelines of PARP inhibitors for ovarian cancer is still 4-8 weeks. Patients can choose medication based on the recovery of side effects.
Finally
In the new year, our [Gynecological Oncology Mutual Helper] will also bring more cancer-related science content. You can continue to pay attention~
Editor in charge: Gynecological Oncology Mutual Helper
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