Animal Models of Toxicities Caused by Anti-Neoplastic Therapy

Abstract

Radiation and chemotherapy induce a wide range of acute and chronic toxicities Not only are these associated with poor health outcomes but they also limit patients ability to tolerate treatment and incur significant Increases in resource use and cost Universally they impair patients quality of life (QoL) In addition to hematological complications such as anemia thrombocytopenia and neutropenia cancer patients are also at risk for a wide range of non hematological taxicities These may occure during or soon after cancer treatment (acute toxicities) or they may not develop until well after the completion of treatment (# 100 days late toxicities) and become, chronic and linger for years after the patient s disease is controlled The overall incidence of some form of treatment toxicity is almost 100% Toxicities include those that are tissue specific such as mucosal injury of some or all of the parts of the gastrointestinal tract (mucositis) cutaneous damage (dermatitis) salivary gland dysfunction and venous thrombosis Alteratively patients may develop more systemic forms of toxicity that result in conditions such as fatigue depression cognitive impairment and cachexia