What are the long term effects of chemotherapy?
Adriamycin can rarely cause long term damage to the heart- usually congestive heart failure. As mentioned above this side effect is dose dependent and strong efforts are now made to limit the dose and method of administration to avoid cardiac toxicity. Taxol and Navelbine can cause neuropathy (damage to the nerves) that involves the hands and feet. The symptoms are usually mild but can be severe. These effects are dose-dependent and therefore limit how high the dose can go. Neuropathy is usually reversible, but often persists for long periods of time.
