Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to treat cancer. It works by halting or preventing the multiplication of cells.
Chemotherapy drugs target specific stages of the cell cycle during cell division. Since cancer cells divide rapidly, chemotherapy drugs are effective at attacking them during this cycle. However, when chemotherapy drugs circulate throughout the body, they can also harm healthy cells, resulting in various side effects.
Chemotherapy drugs can be used for different purposes. They can be utilized to eradicate all the cancer, or they can be employed before surgery to reduce the size of the cancer, or they can be administered after surgery to prevent cancer recurrence.
Sadly, chemotherapy treatment doesn't just target cancer cells; it also affects healthy cells in the skin, hair, follicles, and digestive tract, leading to various side effects such as anemia, bleeding, loss of appetite, constipation, diarrhea, fatigue, nausea, hair loss, and more.
A Texas woman Lisa Monk, underwent chemotherapy only to find out that she did not have cancer. The 39-year-old woman experienced stomach pain in 2022, which she suspected was due to kidney stones. After tests were conducted, two kidney stones were found and subsequently removed. Tests also revealed a mass on her spleen, which was successfully removed through surgery."
According to Lisa Monk, the mass from the spleen was sent to three pathology labs, and then it was sent to a fourth lab, which diagnosed it as clear cell angiosarcoma which is an aggressive cancer of the blood vessels.
Lisa underwent her first round of chemotherapy in March 2023. Due to the initial session, she lost all her hair. Following the second round, she experienced vomiting and developed a silvery skin. Lisa understood that she had only 15 months to live and mentally prepared herself for the limited time ahead.
But during her subsequent visit to the hospital, Lisa came to know that she never had cancer in the first place, and she had been misdiagnosed.
During one of the visits, a nurse practitioner was asking about Lisa's symptoms. While doing so, there was a blank expression on the nurse's face. Immediately, she ran away, leaving Lisa alone in the room for 15 minutes. Then the doctor came and tried to explain to Lisa, using a lot of medical terminology, that she didn't have cancer.
But what disappointed Lisa even more, was the fact that the pathology report was dated a month ago, which means that the hospital had the information that Lisa did not have cancer. By carefully reviewing the report, they could have avoided the second round of chemotherapy. Despite all this, Lisa had to wait, even after being told she didn't have cancer, until a proper report confirming this was sent to her. So, all these factors took a toll on Lisa's body.
In a similar incident of misdiagnosis, a famous beauty influencer, Jessica Pettaway, was diagnosed with stage 3 cervical cancer after being treated for fibroids for a considerable amount of time.
Jessica's story is tragic as she experienced an immense amount of vaginal bleeding. Initially, she thought it might be a concern that many women experience. Later, doctors confirmed that it was fibroids. What was worrying to her was that the blood clots were very big in size. This episode occurred about 3 to 4 times a year. It took almost a year to arrive at the diagnosis of cervical cancer, which unfortunately had progressed to the third stage. She had very little time left in this world.
References
1. https://www.cancer.net/navigating-cancer-care/how-cancer-treated/chemotherapy/what-chemotherapy
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Dr. Manav Chaturvedi/MSM)