Effects of Chemotherapy in Cancer Patients When we hear the words cancer treatment, our minds naturally go straight to chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is one of the most commonly used ways to treat cancer. Chemotherapy had no initial plan to treat cancer patients, but it had other plausible problems to solve. After World War II, lymphoma, a form of chemotherapy, was used to help soldiers injured by mustard gas (Chemo Brain, 2012). These medical advances continued to progress toward what we today call chemotherapy. However, no action is prioritized without effects, good or bad. Although chemotherapy is given to cancer patients with the hope of a positive outcome, chemotherapy can have negative effects. Common effects seen in cancer patients who have received some form of chemotherapy treatment may occur: “chemo brain,” anemia, and nausea with vomiting (Chemo Brain, 2012). Like any medication/treatment, chemotherapy can have a negative impact on a cancer patient. Chemotherapy tends to have a psychological effect on patients, commonly referred to as “chemo brain” (Chemo Brain, 2012). Chemobrain is a mental disability caused by the effect of chemotherapy that can alter the daily life of a cancer patient (Chemo Brain, 2012). Examples of chemo brain may include: becoming forgetful, not being able to concentrate, having difficulty remembering details, no longer being able to multitask, having difficulty completing a task, and having difficulty remembering sentence structure (Chemo Brain, 2012). Although chemo brain is the common term, doctors and researchers refer to chemo brain as “mild cognitive impairment” (Chemo Brain, 2012). They usually use the appropriate term if the effects are short-lived, but they will use the term chemobr...... middle of article...... me E. Groopman, LMI (nd). Retrieved from http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/91/19/1616.full Nordqvist, C. (nd). Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/158401.php Patient Advocate Foundation, (2012). Guide to chemotherapy-related anemia. Retrieved from http://www.patientadvocate.org/resources.php?p=195 Mayo Clinic Staff, (2014), Chemotherapy-Related Nausea and Vomiting: Prevention is the Best Defense http://www.mayoclinic .org/tests-procedures/chemotherapy/in-depth/cancer/art-20047517?pg=2 Gao, HF, Liang, Y., Hou, NN, Zhang, DS, Wu, HY (2014). Aprepitant plus palonosetron and dexamethasone for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in patients receiving multi-day cisplatin chemotherapy. 43(1), 73-76.http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=9398bc07-cbae-4a6e-b88e-34cacb77844c%40sessionmgr111&vid=9&hid=121