Parathyroid cancer treatment with chemotherapy

Currently, chemotherapy is a proven therapy for treating metastatic parathyroid cancer, and doctors often prescribe it as an additional method that helps prevent relapses or as a part of combined therapy. Still, before starting chemotherapy, healthcare practitioners must ensure that the patient’s organism can handle possible side effects and verify the diagnosis of parathyroid cancer. Nowadays, physicians prescribe various drugs as a part of chemotherapy, including doxorubicin, methotrexate, cyclophosphamide, dacarbazine, 5-fluorouracil, and many others. Patients might have any of those drugs, depending on the cancer’s features, grade, stage, health status, etc. Also, a combination of different medications might be indicated. A single chemotherapy treatment session usually takes up to a few hours. The patient receives a drug via intravenous injection or dropper. After the procedure, the patient has to stay in a hospital for a few hours to ensure they are okay and can return home. Sometimes, slightly positive results might be received after the first treatment sessions. Still, in most cases, the patients might need up to 4-6 treatment sessions to feel much better. Oncologists measure chemotherpay results by doing regular imaging like CT or PET CT scans. That helps to track the disease course and adjust the therapy if needed.