Treatment Options
The treatment information on this
page and the search icons that follow are not meant to replace
the advice and treatment of a qualified doctor of oncology. We
do hope to provide you with some general information on
treatment options as well as provide you with the names of
oncologists and cancer treatment centers throughout the Country.
If you have been diagnosed with leukemia or another form of
cancer you should seek immediate help from an oncology
specialist, a hematologist, and a specialist in radiation
oncology. These professionals are trained in diseases of the
blood and specialize in the treatment of cancer. It never hurts
to seek second opinions when you are diagnosed with a
potentially life ending disease.
People who suffer from Leukemia are generally treated with one
or more of the following modalities; chemotherapy, radiation
therapy, bone marrow or stem cell transplants, and monoclonal
antibodies.
We believe it is critical for you to consult with the best
specialist you can find. Again, do not be afraid to seek a
second opinion, or at the very least consult a team of Doctors
who specialize in the treatment of Leukemia. Just like lawyers,
two Doctors in the same field of medicine may have very
different opinions regarding your treatment. If you are not the
type of person who likes to ask questions or are intimidated by
Doctors, you may want to consider appointing someone to act as
your advocate. In our experience, often your spouse is your best
advocate. Again, just like choosing a lawyer, do not be afraid
to ask questions regarding a Doctors experience in these
matters, does the Doctor truly specialize in this field, has the
Doctor successfully treated patients in your condition before.
Above all, remember you may be in the fight of and for your
life; you need the best and most up to date information
available, you need to make the most informed decisions possible
and you need the care and treatment of an experienced, trained
and caring professional.
Chemotherapy
Just about everybody has heard the term Chemotherapy. Most
people know that it is a treatment for cancer. For many of us,
our understanding of Chemotherapy ends there simply because like
most unpleasant things we would rather not know or think about
it unless we have to. Cancer is no joke,
you hear a lot of people refer to it as the C-word because they
don’t like to even say the word. We all hope and pray that if we
live a healthy life , we will live a long time, watch our kids
and grandkids grow and prosper and when our time comes we will
go quick and hopefully while we are sleeping.. Unfortunately,
you or a loved one may have done all the right things only to be
unwittingly poisoned by Benzene and now you are in the fight of
your life. Chemotherapy is the use of chemicals that are put
into the body as therapy for the cancer. Cancer cells are cells
that grow rapidly in the body,
chemotherapy drugs are formulated to target rapidly growing
cells like cancer cells and kill them. An early detection of
cancer in the body usually means your chances of survival
increase because the cancer cells have had less time to grow and
spread throughout the body. Chemotherapy is often the first line
of defense in the fight against cancer. Chemotherapy drugs are
very strong because they are designed to kill rapidly growing
vibrant cells. Chemotherapy drugs as a general rule do not
discriminate among rapidly growing cells so they can have side
effects such as hair loss, nausea, fatigue, loss of weight from
loss of appetite, a weak immune system that can make you
susceptible to other ailments and other side effects. Side
effects from chemotherapy are much better controlled today than
they were in the past. Still, some times you will hear people
say ,” If I ever got the big C-word I
would never go for chemo.” They say that because a lot of us
have known somebody who underwent chemotherapy,
suffered all the side effects and
succumbed to the cancer anyway. I suppose that is one way of
looking at things and talk like that is easier said then done.
The truth is, there are many, many
cases of people who owe their lives to Chemotherapy. Lance
Armstrong, the international biking super star comes immediately
to mind. I have had clients who have beaten the worst forms of
cancer and I have had relatives who have beaten cancer and lived
cancer-free for years. You need to make a decision in
conjunction with your doctors and family to pursue the treatment
option that is best for you based on all the information that is
available. Below are some excellent links to non-lawyer sites
that have extensive information on chemotherapy,
I have already done the search for you, all you need to
do is “click” on the the hyperlink .
Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy is the treatment of cancer using penetrating
beams of high or streams of particles called radiation.
Radiation is given in high doses to kill cancer cells or to stop
these rapidly growing cells from continuing to grow and divide.
Although radiation can also harm heathy cells most will recover
while cancer cells generally will not. Radiation therapy is
generally targeted to a specific area of the body or directly
at a tumor. In this way it is different from chemotherapy which
is a systemic treatment because chemotherapy reaches all parts
of the body. Often radiation therapy in used in conjunction with
chemotherapy. When added to a regime of chemotherapy, radiation
therapy is an adjuvant therapy. Radiation therapy can also be
used on the entire body in a leukemia patient before a stem
cell or bone marrow transplant. Side effects of radiation
therapy vary from person to person, some patients suffer
serious side effects whileothers may expierience little or none.
Side effects to radiation may be acute or chronic. Acute side
effects are those that occur soon after the radiation therapy
but are gone after a few weeks of discontuance of the radiation
therapy while chronic side effects can last years. Generally
the side effects of radiation therapy are fatigue, loss of
appetite,skin rashes, dry, sensitive skin, and emotional
difficulties.. Fatigue is the most common side effect .Doctors
are unsure if it is because of the cancer itself, the radiation
or a little of both. Coping with possible side effects is yet
another area where it is important to surrond yourself with the
best medical and spiritual care available. Below are some
excellent non-lawyer links to sites with extensive information
about radiation therapy. I have already done the search for you,
all you need to do is "click" on the hyperlink.
Bone Marrow Transplant and Stem Cell transplant
Bone marrow transplatation was first successfully used in
1968.It has been used to treat and cure many diseases thought to
be incurable. Bone marrow transplantation is a regocnized
medical procedure for Leukemia,aplastic anemia, various
lymphomas and tumors found in breast and ovarian cancer. Bone
marrow is the tissue found on the inside of bones. Some bone
marrow in the human body contains very beneficial cells like
white blood cells, which fight infections and red blood cells
which carry oxygen .While a reletively new procedure, BMT is
becoming somewhat common with over 7,500 procedures in the U.S
ayear. In leukemia patients the stem cells in the bone marrow
produce excessive defective cells which accumulate in the blood
stream and interfer with the production of normal cells. In
order to destroy the defective cells large doses of chemotherapy
and/or and radiation are used which has the side effect of
killing the normal cells as well. A BMT allows your Doctor to
aggressively treat the cancer because the damaged bone marrow is
going to be replaced.
An "allogeneic"BMT is when the
bone marrow is harvested from a donor, usually a blood relative
like a brother or sister. Like any transplant ther is a risk of
rejection so in a allogeneic BMT it is critical to get as close
of a genetic match as possible. Statisically, there is a 35%
chance that a sibling will be a perfect match.
In some situations , it may be
possible to do an BMT using the patients own bone marrow cells.
The cells are harvested while the patient is in remission or if
the disease being treated does not involve the bone marrow.
Transplants using the patients own bone marrow are called
"autologous" transplants.
Of interest is that the procedure
for harvesting the bone marrow is more evasive than the
transplatation itself. The procedure for the harvesting takes
place in the hospital operating room and is the same whether the
patient or a donor provides the marrow. The marrow is harvested
from the "iliac crest", the rear portion of the hip bone by
inserting a needle into the bone and drawing out the marrow.
This procedure is done with the patient under anesthesia. About
one or two quarts are harvested. The amount harvested depends
on the donors size and the concentation of marrow cells. In the
case of a donor the bone marrow may be treated to reduce the
risk of rejection but is then taken to be transplated into the
patient directly. If it is the patient own marrow which is
harvested it i may be purged or cleaned of any residual cancer
cells and then frozen to be re-introduced to the patient at a
later date.se tia cavityInterestlyhas not in Usually the
patient’s blood stem cells are collected and frozen, and then
reintroduced into the patient after he/she has received
intensive chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy.
The transplation of the bone
marrow is done intravenously as any blood product would
be.It is not a surgical procedure so it is done in the
patients room and not the operating room. The preperation
for the transplant can be trying as the dosage of
chemotherapy and/or radiation administered to "condition"
the patient for the transplant are much greater than for
someone who has the same disease but not undergoing BMT.
The first month following a
BMT is the most tense. The "conditioning" period has had the
desired effect of destroying the bone marrow cells so the
new cells can engraft and produce normal cells, but it has
also left the patients' immune system in tatters.It takes
about a month for the bone marrow to produce normal cells so
until then a patient is extremely susceptible to ifections
and bleeding. Multiple blood transfusions and antibiotics
will be given during this period.
Should youundergo a BMT be
prepared to find and lean on all the support you can
get. Times like these remind us all of the importance of
family.A BMT is an emotionally trying procedure because the
side effects from the chemo and/or radiation therapy at
such high doses will cause a patient to feel very ill and
sick for several weeks.
A BMT is no a difficult
procedure to undergo but if near certain death is the
alternative it is worthwhile.
Below are more hyperlinks to
non-lawyer sites with excellent information on BMT. Just
"click" and go
Stem Cell transplant is very
similar to bone marrow transplant, the procedures and
reasons behind them being much the same.
Below are more hyperlinks to
non-lawyer sites with excellent information on Stem cell
transplantation. Just"click" and go.
Immunotherapy or Monoclonal Antibodies
Monoclonal antibodies are proteins that are produced in the
laboratory which are put ito a patients body. These antibodies
can be made to interact with the cancer cells in Luekemia
patients such that they attach themselves to the tumor cell
causing it to be destroyed. These antibodies are sometimes
called"naked antibodies" because they do not carry a radioactive
agent or toxin to kill the tumor cell they attach to. In May 200
the FDA approved the drug Mylotarg(registerd tade name) for the
treatment of Acute Myelogenous leukemia. This drug is indicated
for older patients who have relapsed.eeused to assist the body’s
immune system in getting rid of the disease. Once the monoclonal
antibodies are put into the patient’s body, they seek out and
bind themselves to the leukemia cells. Then the immune system
responds by destroying the antibodies and the cancer cells
simultaneously. However, it is important to keep in mind that
monoclonal antibodies are a recent development in leukemia
treatment, thus the long-term effectiveness is still being
investigated.
Below are more
hyperlinks to non-lawyer links with excellent information on
Immunotherapy
Additional Links to information
If you
have any questions regarding treatment or your legal
rights, please contact us through our
Case Evaluation Form or contact us
at:
(800)
569-2325 •
(866)
Tex-Laws
