Side Effects (definition of)
Side effects are undesirable results of a medication that go beyond the drug's primary application. Common cancer treatment side effects include:
- hair loss
- nausea and loss of appetite
- fatigue
- lesions
The reason for these side effects is that what kills cancer cells is likely to cause some harm to healthy tissue as well; they are not "foreign pathogens" in the sense of harmful bacteria and viruses, but rather normal cells that fail to die off, continuing to grow and multiply in an uncontrolled manner.
Solutions lie in concentrating such treatments to as targeted an area as possible.
Recent research suggest that cancer cells thrive in an acidic, low-oxygen environment. Some types of cancer are sensitive to light frequencies, which is the basis of the new Photodynamic Therapy (PDT). Such treatments have few if any side effects and are gradually coming into more widespread use in patients diagnosed with mesothelioma. However, at present they are used to supplement conventional chemo and radiation treatments; they do not replace such therapies.
