Can chemotherapy have long term side effects?
I don’t mean the stuff like hair loss or sickness , I mean side effects that can last for months or even years, maybe for ever?
After effects.
Wow. All interesting answers so far. Not asking for myself, a relative starts chemotherapy soon. Thanks everyone.
btw I haven’t given anyone a thumbs down, I don’t know why someone would give any of these answers a thumbs down as all are helpful especially personal experiences.
Yes, it is possible to have long term side effects . . but the side effects are in exchange for your life. Side effects can be treated. Death is final.
Speaking as a parent who has lost a child . . I would give a thousand percent in order to have my son alive and living with side effects no matter what they are. I can not emphasize this enough . . life is worth fighting for, because when it is gone . . there are no ’second chances’.
Yes, "chemo brain" is one. Also rebuilding the immune system and *usually* loss of muscle mass. I’m sure there are more, but those are the first that come to mind.
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My daughter took chemo treatments for 18 months 8 years ago.
Yes, as good as chemo can be, it can also cause long lasting side effects, but most of those will heal in time.. Keep in mind though, one of the main side effects is curing the cancer and saving a life.
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My friend went through it..
I dont notice anything long term with him. But there was a stretch where he was very weak, lost a lot of weight and muscle, and seemed kinda delirous a lot.
But that seemed to clear up over a few months…
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Yes, it puts the patient at greater risk of getting other cancers. There is also damage to the liver and kidneys, accelerated ageing, etc.
See this article for more info.
http://www.naturalnews.com/023689_chemotherapy_cancer_disease.html
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It can do.
Individuals have different reactions to chemo, short- and long-term.
My own experience, and that of many other people I’ve met through cancer support networks who’ve had chemo, is that chemo brain can be a long lasting side effect – it affects the memory and can feel like a sort of mental fog.
For me it mainly took the form of forgetting the appropriate words or names of objects or places, which can be amusing but also quite distressing. The worst aspect was that I lost my facility for mental arithmetic, which I’d always been good at. At one point it seriously affected my work. It’s only now, over five years after treatment ended, that I feel I’ve just about regained that facility.
I was profoundly depressed during treatment (it’s a lesser known but common side effect of chemotherapy), and this continued for around three years after treatment ended.
Association sickness is an aspect of chemo for many people and can continue for some time afterward. Smells, tastes etc that become associated with feeling sick from chemo, and trigger nausea even after chemo is finished. It’s why favourite foods aren’t advised shortly before or after chemo – you may never be able to face them again.
But for me the most long lasting consequence of chemo has been a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes; to be fair, nobody can be sure if it was chemo that triggered it, but steroid drugs can trigger diabetes and it’s hard for me to find another explanation. I know someone for whom it is certain that her diabetes was trggered by chemo, but she was diagnosed soon after; I was diagnosed some years afterwards.
With some types of chemotherapy, and in some cancers, there is a very slightly increased chance of developing a second type of cancer later.
Generally this is more likely to happen when the original cancer was a lymphoma, but it can happen very occasionally with other types of cancer.
Fortunately this very serious long-term effect is very rare. But yes it happens, and yes very occasionally someone dies as a result.
People with aggressive and advanced cancers who agree to chemotherapy do so in the full knowledge of this fact because they have a life-threatening disease and consider this their best chance.
I’m glad I had chemo and the other treatments I had, because I’m still alive and pretty well almost six years after diagnosis with an aggressive, advanced cancer.
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i’ve been on and off chemo for the last 5 years and the biggest things to bug me are hearing loss (side effect of my chemos), neuropathy (nerve damage makes my fingers and feet kind of tingle/burn) and feeling foggy (slow)
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As the other answers confirm, there can be long term side effects, but with any luck your relative won’t get these.
However, if they do, go to http://www.after-cancer.com, which is all about dealing with side effects in a sensible, medical way. Lots of fun things that also help.
Verite R
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Chemo obviously hurts your immune system. For some people, there immune system would be back to normal for about 6 months. It could be mainly normal but things like a flu or a cold might last longer or become a bigger threat even after a year of finishing chemo. Sometimes chemo can change your sense of smell and taste. For some people it’s temporary and only lasts the time they are on treatment. For others it’s permanent.
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Yes, it is possible to have long term side effects . . but the side effects are in exchange for your life. Side effects can be treated. Death is final.
Speaking as a parent who has lost a child . . I would give a thousand percent in order to have my son alive and living with side effects no matter what they are. I can not emphasize this enough . . life is worth fighting for, because when it is gone . . there are no ’second chances’.
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You bet it can. I think I’ve recovered from chemo brain, but I still have numb fingers and feet from taxol. My balance sucks, I don’t dare walk down stairs without holding the hand rail. My feet don’t tell me where I am – I have to look. My writing is a scrawl, I print in shaky letters and hope the bank doesn’t reject my checks. It’s been long enough that I am quite sure this is permanent.
On the other hand I’m still on the green side of the grass, my hair is back as thick as ever, I never was very nauseated. Hardly anyone gets to be old and die without any problems. I count myself lucky.
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