Home About Us Treatments Providers Contact 1-800-797-5292 Chemotherapy (CTX or CTx) Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherapy may be given with a curative intent (which almost always involves combinations of drugs), or it may aim to prolong life or to reduce symptoms (palliative chemotherapy). Chemotherapy is one of the major categories of the medical discipline specifically devoted to pharmacotherapy for cancer, which is called medical oncology. The term chemotherapy has come to connote non-specific usage of intracellular poisons to inhibit mitosis, cell division. The connotation excludes more selective agents that block extracellular signals (signal transduction). The development of therapies with specific molecular or genetic targets, which inhibit growth-promoting signals from classic endocrine hormones (primarily estrogens for breast cancer and androgens for prostate cancer) are now called hormonal therapies. By contrast, other inhibitions of growth-signals like those associated with receptor tyrosine kinases are referred to as targeted therapy. Importantly, the use of drugs (whether chemotherapy, hormonal therapy or targeted therapy) constitutes systemic therapy for cancer in that they are introduced into the blood stream and are therefore in principle able to address cancer at any anatomic location in the body. Systemic therapy is often used in conjunction with other modalities that constitute local therapy (i.e. treatments whose efficacy is confined to the anatomic area where they are applied) for cancer such as radiation therapy, surgery or hyperthermia therapy. Oncology Pharmacy Programs and Services: Easy Patient Referral & Order Process Home Infusion Services Billing Optimization State of Art 797 Compliant Pharmacy Accredited by Joint Commission Copyright 2020 © PLAZA HOME CARE PHARMACY. All Rights Reserved.

Home About Us Treatments Providers Contact 1-800-797-5292 Blood Modifiers Blood modifiers work by stimulating bone marrow to produce more cells and they affect certain diseases such as cancer and chronic kidney failure. In reviewing the therapeutic category of blood modifiers, there are 3 areas of focus: red blood cells (erythropoiesis growth factors, ie, Procrit, Epogen); white blood cells (myeloid growth factors, ie, Neupogen, Leukine, Neulasta); and platelets (thrombopoietic growth factors, ie, Neumega). All of these products work by stimulating bone marrow to produce more cells.¹ ¹ Pharmacy Times; Todd Cooperman, PharmD, RPh, PAHM, and Russel Allinson, RPh, MS; January 2011; Specialty-0111 Copyright 2020 © PLAZA HOME CARE PHARMACY. All Rights Reserved.