Failed Cancer Treatment: Signs that Chemotherapy isn’t Working

Failed Cancer Treatment: Signs that Chemotherapy isn’t Working
Failed Cancer Treatment: Signs that Chemotherapy isn’t Working

Chemotherapy is a complex, mainline cancer treatment option that’s difficult to explain, without going into full details. Nonetheless, it can be explained in brief as a form of cancer treatment which involves the use of just one or multiple cytotoxic medicine and other types of drugs simultaneously. The drug/drugs interferes in abnormal cell growth caused by cancer and kills those cells off from within.

Although chemotherapy has a high chance of setting the cancer back into remission and might even cure it completely in rare instances, chemotherapy medicine doesn’t always work, unfortunately. Taking a look at the signs of a failed chemotherapy allows us to recognize when it is time to look at some alternative natural options of treatment.

The Tumour is Not Shrinking

One of the prime signs that the cancer has been set into remission is, of course, the shrunk tumour.

How much the growth or growths will shrink cannot be estimated accurately by even oncologists, but at least some shrinkage is expected at the end of a chemo cycle, to indicate that the drug/drugs are working.

If the tumor has remained the same size without growing or shrinking, it’s called a stable disease, but it isn’t the best natural result one can expect.

The Tumour is Growing

One of the worst natural results that both the doctor and the patient can expect after going through a gruelling cycle of chemotherapy is seeing that the tumor has not shrunk but has actually grown in size.

It signifies that the cancer isn’t responding to the chemo medicine and drugs at all and the patient is now in a worse physical condition than he/she was in before.

The Cancer is Spreading

One of the primary reasons why chemo medicine is administered in the first place involves stopping the cancer from spreading to other parts of the body, also known as metastasis.

If metastasis is observed after a cycle of chemotherapy, it’s the worst result and a painful indicator of the fact that the drugs and medicine have failed completely.

What are a Patient’s Options at that Stage?

Some oncologists will advise the patient to go for alternative natural cancer treatments, while others may try another chemo cycle with a different drug and medicine or a whole new combination of drugs. At that point, the choice is completely yours, as the doctors are just guessing.

The Winnipeg Alternative Cancer Treatments Clinic offers a whole range of natural treatment options to their patients, even after chemo has failed them. It’s definitely worth checking out in the first place, and especially if the chemo has already failed to do the work.

Even when chemo works, there is no guarantee that the cancer won’t come back. The Canadian Cancer Society often describes certain cancers as a chronic illness that can only be managed, but not fully cured yet.

Hopefully, the cure to the deadly disease will be found soon, but as of now, there is a significant bit of luck involved in chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgical procedures or any other alternative treatment options out there.