Side effects

Chemotherapy lowers your amount of red blood cells, which carry oxygen around the body. If your red blood cell count drops too low, you’ll develop anaemia. This may cause you to feel fatigued and have a lack of energy. In some cases, you may experience some shortness of breath, particularly when walking or climbing stairs. If you notice any shortness of breath while resting, it is important this is escalated to your clinical team or call the Oncology Hotline.

If you are anaemic, you may need treatment to increase your red blood cells and this will involve a blood transfusion, which will take place at Chilworth Day Unit. We usually give each unit of blood over two to three hours each, so you need to allow enough time for this. 

Chemotherapy can reduce the number of cells called platelets in your blood. These help stop bleeding when you cut yourself. Sometimes when your platelets are low, you may experience spontaneous nose bleeds or bleeding gums after brushing your teeth, or you may notice unexplained bruising. Please let your medical team know if you experience any of these. You may notice some small red spots on your skin, another sign of low platelets.

We recommend using a soft toothbrush, to reduce risk of damaging your gums and causing additional bleeding.

You may require a platelet infusion to top up your platelet count. This will be administered on Chilworth Day Unit and usually only takes around 30 minutes to administer. 

Chemotherapy can reduce your body’s ability to fight infections. This makes you more likely to get infections that could make you seriously ill. Please be vigilant for any signs of infection and the team would recommend investing in a thermometer for your home. You will need to seek help if you experience a fever at home. If you have a temperature of 38 (or above 37.5 twice within one hour) you must contact us, via the 24hr Oncology Hotline or go to the Emergency Department. Additionally, if you feel very unwell but do not have a temperature, please call the Oncology Hotline for advice. Try to avoid visitors that have open infections like a cough/cold. 

Chemotherapy has the ability to cause some sickness and vomiting. Not all chemotherapy causes this and where it does, we have very good anti-sickness medications. Please do not suffer at home if you are feeling sick and it is effecting your ability to eat and drink, it is very important to escalate it to your clinical team or day unit nurses. Sickness and/or vomiting does not need to be tolerated as part of the chemotherapy. It is easier to manage if we know about it. Your team can give you anti-sickness medication to help with this and we have a variety of medication and strengths to make you feel better. 

Some chemotherapy has the potential to cause diarrhoea and/or constipation and you may experience this after you begin treatment. Often this is a result of either the chemotherapy’s effect on the cells that line your gastrointestinal tract or a side effect of other medication. If you have an increase of three or more episodes in 24hrs, or if you are waking at night to have diarrhoea, it is important that this is escalated to your team, the day unit nurses or our 24hr oncology hotline. Your team can give you medication to help with this. 

Do make sure you continue to drink plenty and eat little and often.

Chemotherapy can often cause fatigue, and is probably the widest reported side effect across all disease group and treatment options. It is important to give yourself time to rest and recover when needed however, research has shown that gentle exercise, even a short walk around the garden or to the local shops, can ease symptoms of fatigue. It is important to rest but also to try and keep active at intervals.

If your fatigue is so bad it is stopping you being able to get up in the morning or preventing you taking a shower, you must escalate this to your clinical team or day unit staff.  

There is a lot of information for managing cancer or treatment related fatigue. Do ask your team or chemotherapy nurses for advice.