If you have received a breast cancer diagnosis, you may be talking with your oncologist about chemotherapy. According to the Breast Cancer site, there are several choices available that vary the mix of medications. The choice of therapies is dependent on a number of factors, including side effects, the type of breast cancer with which you are diagnosed, complementary medications and effectiveness.
Starting Out
Working with your records, your oncologist will recommend an option that includes dosage, duration and regimen. This is the best time to review the potential side effects and outcomes. Keep in mind that chemotherapy has come a long way since its inception, and side effects aren't as severe for patients as they were a decade ago. In fact, minimizing side effects and ensuring that medications don't compound one another's side effects is a critical part of your option choice, as is the potential for the chemotherapy to be as effective as possible. This does not always equate to using the strongest medication mix, it means finding the mix that best suits your diagnosis.
Choices
It might seem that you have fallen into alphabet soup when reviewing the drug choices. The most common combinations include AC, AT, CMF, FAC and CAF, though your oncologist may choose a more individualized combination or focus on one medication. AC combines Adriamycin and Cytoxan, sometimes also with Taxol. AT therapy means a combination of six cycles of Adriamycin and either of the two taxane drugs, Taxotere or Taxol. CMF is a standard treatment that includes Cytoxan, Methotrexate and Fluorouracil. FAC treatment combines Fluorouracil, Adriamycin and Cytoxan.CAF treatment uses Cyclophosphamide, Doxorubicin and Fluorouracil.
Focus
Each medication used will target a specific issue. Alkalytors, typically Cyclophosphamide in most chemo combinations, act very much like radiation by damaging the proteins that tumor cells use to replicate. It can be given orally or via an intravenous method (IV). Antimetabolites, such as Fluorouracil, cause the tumor cells to die. Antibiotics (here, not your usual infection-fighters) prevent gene replication; they include Cytoxan and Cytoxan. Antimiotic agents prevent gene division; Oncovin and Navelbine are both derived from the periwinkle. Antimicrotubule include Taxol (paclitaxel) and Taxotere (docetaxel); both are developed from the bark of the yew tree. These two medications mar the cell's structure and its ability to divide.
