What are the short term side effects of chemotherapy?
Most commonly, chemotherapy affects the bone marrow. Cytoxan or Cytoxan/Adriamycin, usually affect the bone marrow between days 10 and 14. Recovery occurs by day 15. In the taxanes, (Taxol or Taxatere), bone marrow suppression usually occurs at day 8, and then there is usually recovery by day 10 or 11. Usually, chemotherapy is repeated every 21-24 days after patients have recovered from all side effects (bone-marrow suppression, mucositis, and diarrhea). CMF chemotherapy also causes bone marrow suppression, usually in the second week. Recovery usually takes place by day 21 or before. Adriamycin, in particular, causes hair loss, as do the taxanes. Adriamycin can cause damage to the heart. Congestive heart failure, irregular heart beats and other cardiac toxicities may occur when the patient receives a cumulative dose greater than 500 mg/m2. Therefore medical oncologists make every effort to keep the dose as low as possible within the range of effectiveness. Continuous (slow) infusion of
