Explaination of medical process...

[thyme4change]

Twice in the last month or so I've heard of people having chemotherapy. The twist is that neither of them have cancer, nor do they have the same disease.

What is chemotherapy? What does it solve/resolve/change/do to the body that makes it "work" as a treatment?

[Artemis Windsong]

www.neulasta.com/patient/howcanhelp/chemotherapy-treatment-neulasta.html?src=ppc&WT.srch=1&SRC=2

Maybe this web site will expalin it.

[Peace77]

Chemotherapy is also used to treat Lupus.

[hamsterwheel]

Chemotherapy can be used to treat autoimmune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, or to keep immune responses low (solid organ transplantation). Usually it's lower dose than traditional chemotherapy, but the idea is to dampen down the immune response. Chemotherapy is designed to kill off rapidly dividing cells (such as tumors) and since immune cells divide rapidly, they are also effected by chemotherapy. With autoimmune disease, the immune system is literally attacking your own body (which is not good). By using chemotherapeutics, the immune system is reduced in its function as there are less cells around to initiate damage, resulting in less damage to the body.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Wouldn't it make more sense to root out the cause of the autoimmune disease rather than attack and possibly kill the body with toxins?

With genetic autoimmune disorders the root cause is your own body.

[hamsterwheel]

Jun 23, 2012 15:17:47 GMT -5 @lonewolf said:

Chemo never made any sense to me. It kills good cells, cells needed to help repair the body. Wouldn't it make more sense to root out the cause of the autoimmune disease rather than attack and possibly kill the body with toxins?

But if those "good immune cells" are destroying your organs,attacking your joints, or damaging otherwise good healthy cells to where you have a poor quality of life, that's not good either. It's all a balance. Sure you could do nothing about it and let their immune system be, but if their life is so impaired by the damage caused by their good immune system or they die, why would you not treat them? People have significantly improved lives due to these medications.
They do have more selective inhibitors out on the market, known as biologics (which vary depending on the disease state) to where they only inhibit certain aspects of immunity (usually cytokines and chemokines, which are how immune cells communicate). However, they are extremely expensive and have similar side-effects. Again, these chemo agents are MUCH lower dose compared to traditional chemo for cancer to where the side effects are significantly reduced.
Edited for clarity

[Deleted]

As someone who has both RA and Lupus this is a huge pet peeve of mine.
Taking methotrexate is NOT chemo! It is one drug that is used in the chemo
cocktail or in some cases the sole drug used to treat certain types of cancer,
but at a much larger dose.
warmsocks.wordpress.com/2012/10/10/is-methotrexate-for-ra-chemotherapy/