ONS Chemotherapy Administration Test Questions with Expert Solutions

What do alkylating chemotherapy drugs do? Chemotherapy drugs that are cell cycle nonspecific, so they exert their effects in all phases of the cell cycle. They directly damage DNA to prevent cancer cells from reproducing. They cause breaks in the DNA or cross-linking in a process called alkylation, which causes the drug to interfere with DNA replication. neoadjuvant therapy a cancer treatment that precedes other primary treatment, such as administering chemotherapy or radiation therapy to a patient before surgery adjuvant therapy Treatment of disease with substances that assist or enhance the action of primary treatment (i.e. surgery or radiation). induction treatment of leukemia This phase of chemotherapy treatment (first phase of treatment) usually is initiated in the hospital because of its potential for serious side effects and complications from the severe, intended myelosuppression that ensues. The goal is to achieve a complete response. consolidation treatment This treatment is done to ensure the treatment takes effect and decreases the chance of a recurrence. This treatment is vital because leukemic cells that are not clinically apparent, as through a CBC laboratory draw result or bone marrow biopsy evaluation, are almost always still present to some small degree in the bone marrow. myeloablation therapy A process in which the bone marrow purposely is obliterated through chemotherapy or radiation to prepare for peripheral blood stem cell transplantation or bone marrow transplantation. Myeloablation often is used to treat blood (i.e., liquid) malignancies, such as leukemia or lymphoma. reinduction therapy This treatment is used when a patient who successfully completed induction and consolidation, but relapses months later. combination therapy This therapy reduces the likelihood of drug resistance because the different chemotherapy drugs have different mechanisms of action. Cancer cells usually are heterogeneous; therefore, the effect of different mechanisms of action increases the amount of cancer cells killed at one time. The efficiency seen by use of multiple chemotherapy agents within a regimen provides a synergistic effect. synergy When one chemotherapy drug helps another one (given at the same time) work better, such as with leucovorin and 5-fluorouracil when treating colon cancer.