Symposium Showcases Promising Research Aimed at Reducing Cancer Therapy Side Effects

By Marty Trieschmann

Ask any patient treated with chemotherapy, and the answer may be the treatment. Common side effects of chemotherapy include pain, fatigue, hair loss, mouth sores, bowel issues as well as nerve, muscle, cell and organ damage.

And that’s just chemotherapy. Conventional X-ray radiation, a treatment needed by half of all cancer patients, can cause scarring of the lungs and other injuries to any organ in the radiation field.

“Cancer treatments are much better than they used to be, and patients are living longer,” said Marjan Boerma, Ph.D., director of the Center for Studies of Host Response to Cancer Therapy at UAMS. “But patients and survivors can still experience physical suffering, both during and sometimes years after treatment.”

Symposium Showcases Promising Research Aimed at Reducing Cancer Therapy Side Effects

UAMS cancer researcher, Amanda Stolarz, Ph.D., discusses her lymphedema study with colleagues at the UAMS Showcase of Medical Discoveries