Cancer treatment for dummies
Note: I feel guilty most of my links refer you to Wikipedia articles, but it’s usually decent overview for many concepts.
It's official: I begin chemotherapy on Monday
It seems like a weird thing to be excited about, but I've been intrigued by this whole "brain cancer/tumor" thing all along. To begin with, neurology is an interesting subject, and now that it is applied to me, it is even more interesting. Everything from seizures, surgeries, to side effects, the brain is fascinating. I mean, I always knew I had a brain but it wasn’t until I felt the effects of abnormal brain functioning that I realized how powerful and complex it truly is.
Everyone I have known with cancer has had to endure crazy shit when it came to chemo. Some people participate in chemotherapy five days a week, for 45-minute treatments. Other people go one day a week for all-day treatments. People are hooked up to IV receiving chemo straight into their bloodstream. The whole point of chemo is to prevent additional cell growth (mitosis), and hopefully shrink remaining cells/tumor.
If a person has a high grade tumor, or tumor growth becomes more aggressive after surgery, oncologists may prescribe radiation therapy. Radiation directed toward the tumor kills cells—both cancerous and normal. Hopefully the normal cells grow back over time, and the cancer cells stay away permanently. People undergo radiation treatment for various time periods depending on the part of the body radiated. For the brain this typically totals six weeks.
I am truly lucky to be eligible for (what I think is probably) the easiest chemotherapy solution ever. I will be treated with a drug called temozolomide (street name: Temodar). This treatment came out of a clinical trial phase two years ago and is available to people with certain types of brain tumors. Temozolomide is taken orally, and treatment for me involves taking the pill for five days, and then having three weeks off.
I know: WTF? How cool is this?
Of course I expect nausea and possible hair loss as a side affect, but I don't have to go anywhere or receive intravenous therapy. I could even take medical marijuana to help with the feelings of nausea.
Sadly, people suffering from tumors like mine 2+ years ago did not have temozolomide as an option (though they had other, more tradition chemo options). This makes me think about breakthroughs that might be available two years from now.
A note to those of you who know my friend Logan Whitehurst: Logan suffered from a malignant brain tumor different from my own and his treatments and physical side effects were different.
Ultimately, as a person with cancer, my goal is to live long enough to benefit from the next generation of treatment. This is the same "fix" for anyone with cancer that is not (yet) in remission, because guess what? There is no cure for a malignant brain tumor.
As a matter of fact, the World Health Organization only recently classified cancer as "chronic disease," like diabetes and or stroke. This may still sound like a crap sandwich, but it sure beats the previous classification as a "deadly disease".
Fact check from 2022: This lay description of brain tumor treatment and temozolomide still holds up. — Liz
