Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is used to treat various cancers. Different chemotherapy drugs are used which kills cancerous cells and controls growth of cancer. FAC chemotherapy is type of chemotherapy used to treat both node-negative and node-positive breast cancer in women. FAC is an acronym for combination of the three drugs which found effective in treating breast cancer. These three drugs include fluorouracil (5FU), Adriamycin (doxorubicin) and cyclophosphamide.

In FAC chemotherapy, each drug attacks cancerous cells in slightly different ways. Fluorouracil (5FU) is made up molecules with slightly different structure that of normal cells. This fluorouracil makes its way into cancer cells and stops their functioning. Once cancer cells can not function, they die. Adriamycin blocks DNA production in cells as well as inhibits enzymes responsible for repairing DNA. Cells die as they require DNA to survive. However, Adriamycin targets both cancer cell as well as normal healthy cell. But as cancer cells replicate rapidly, it has greater impact on then than your normal cells. Cyclophosphamide gets attached to the DNA of cancer cell. After this, cancer cells get tangled up and are unable to replicate themselves.

FAC chemotherapy can be administered using different methods for each drug. Application methods and plans change, as the pharmacology is constantly changing. Fluorouracil and Adriamycin are administered together into hand or arm, intravenously on days 1 and 8 of that 2-week period. Cyclophosphamide is taken orally for 14 days. This plan of treatment is applied for about four to six times. Each treatment cycle lasts for 4 weeks. So, length of FAC chemotherapy treatment is about 4 to 5 months if there is no serious complication that slows down process.

There is another way of administering FAC chemotherapy. In this method of administration, all three drugs (fluorouracil, Adriamycin and cyclophosphamide) are given simultaneously through a drip into your arm or hand. In this method, cycle is repeated for every three weeks, four to six times, making length of treatment about 2 to 3 1/2 months.
As like other chemotherapies, FAC chemotherapy also have some side effects associate with them. When you begin FAC chemotherapy treatment, your white blood cell count goes down. If your white cell count is not high enough, your doctor will delay your next chemotherapy until your white cells have built themselves back up to normal level.
Other side effects associate with FAC chemotherapy include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, hair loss, memory loss, heart damage, increased risk of infection, unpleasant taste in mouth, mouth as well as throat sores, eye irritation, bladder irritation, loss of fertility, chance of sunburn, bruising or bleeding,

However, this is an overview of FAC chemotherapy. Each patient does not get every side effect and many patients experience very few of them. You must follow your own path. You may experience none of listed side effects other than hair loss; you may have some personal side effects of your very own. Tell your doctor or medical team how and what you’re feeling. They will work to feel you better.