In Reply to: chemo posted by joe on June 24, 2008 at 00:30:50:
I feel no side effects at all after taking for 10 hours. No side effects at all! Let's hope it continues like this!
It's NOT cumulative, there's no more side effects getting worse the longer I take the drug, throwing a thorn in Aunt Joann's argument that everything goes as normal until a wall is hit, and then it's like ... bam, seems ... but the truth in medicine keeps changing, from the patient's perspective atleast.
The exact mechanism of action of doxorubicin is complex and still somewhat unclear, though it is thought to interact with DNA by intercalation.[14] Doxorubicin is known to interact with DNA by intercalation and inhibition of macromolecular biosynthesis.[15] This inhibits the progression of the enzyme topoisomerase II, which unwinds DNA for transcription. Doxorubicin stabilizes the topoisomerase II complex after it has broken the DNA chain for replication, preventing the DNA double helix from being resealed and thereby stopping the process of replication
but I'm really here to write about doxorubicin side effects, to see what I've been missing out on:
Acute side-effects of doxorubicin can include nausea, vomiting, and heart arrhythmias. It can also cause neutropenia (a decrease in white blood cells), as well as complete alopecia (hair loss). When the cumulative dose of doxorubicin reaches 550 mg/m², the risks of developing cardiac side effects, including congestive heart failure, dilated cardiomyopathy, and death, dramatically increase. Doxorubicin cardiotoxicity is characterized by a dose-dependent decline in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. Reactive oxygen species, generated by the interaction of doxorubicin with iron, can then damage the myocytes (heart cells), causing myofibrillar loss and cytoplasmic vacuolization. Additionally, some patients may develop Palmar plantar erythrodysesthesia, or, "Hand-Foot Syndrome," characterized by skin eruptions on the palms of the hand or soles of the feet, characterized by swelling, pain and erythema.