Final answer:
Cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation can have severe side effects due to their non-specific targeting of rapidly dividing cells, which includes both cancerous and healthy cells. These treatments frequently affect the skin, hair follicles, gastrointestinal tract, and bone marrow. Newer therapies are being researched to target cancer cells more specifically and reduce these side effects.
Step-by-step explanation:
The side effects of current cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy, are often severe and can significantly affect a patient's quality of life. These side effects occur because chemotherapy drugs are designed to target and inhibit the division of rapidly growing cells, such as cancer cells. However, they also impact healthy cells that naturally have rapid turnover, leading to collateral damage.
The four bodily systems with rapidly growing cells that are commonly affected include:
- Skin
- Hair follicles
- Gastrointestinal tract
- Bone marrow
Because these treatments are not cancer-type specific, they can destroy healthy cells alongside the cancerous ones, leading to side effects such as hair loss, nausea, and decreased blood cell counts. Current research is focused on developing targeted therapies that would minimize these side effects by distinguishing between healthy cells and cancer cells.