Lung Cancer

My father finished first round of chemotherapy on friday (cisplatin and etoposide).  He barely can speak, is in terrible pain and not eating.  I am so scared.  Is this what chemo is supposed to do????

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  Chemotherapy can cause decrease in appetite and nausea/ vomiting for up to a week after the treatment.  It is also possible to feel pain around the tumor site as a result of the tumor's inflammatory response to the chemotherapy (as tumor cells die, inflammation and swelling around the mass occurs, causing pain).  If your father is already receiving pain medication, the dose should be adjusted to accommodate this increase in pain. Or maybe an addition drug should be added to control the pain.  As for the decrease in appetite, if this is severe and he's not eating at all, he may need to be brought to a hospital so that nutrition can be given either via nasogastric tube or intravenously.  A drug to improve appetite, such as megestrol acetate may also help.