How much “chemo” is too much or too little?

January 3, 2010

It doesn’t surprise us to think about needing different dosages of medications…pain relievers, aspirin, and so on. But how often have you heard anyone talk about the dosage for chemotherapy?

My good friend will begin chemotherapy for her colon cancer in a couple of weeks. She was reading a bit online about some of the research related to the treatment. She read that obesity may make it difficult to determine the right dosage for someone’s chemotherapy to be enough to work. Not that she is fat. Quite the opposite. She is a petite woman of average weight. So she wonders if perhaps she needs a lower dose of chemo to work but to avoid some of the toxicity that a so called average dose would have for her. She will ask her oncologist about it.

Another example of important work being done in cancer research studies to help patients get the most out of their treatment. It would be awful to go through chemo and have it not work because you were overweight and didn’t get a high enough dosage…

Another example, too, of how the ‘normal’ dosage is not a one size fits all prescription. A good lesson to keep in mind when we talk about health…our size and the dosage we need.

Author: Roxanne

I have always loved to learn. After years of trying to pick a major as an undergraduate, I met a professor who guided me to graduate school. And from graduate school, I learned that I could always go to school and keep on learning. And so I have... View all posts by Roxanne