What is Cisplatin?

Transcript

Cisplatin is a platinum chemotherapy, which you’ve probably already heard the name of if you’ve been watching the videos on different cancer types. It’s been one that we’ve been using for many years and that’s because it’s quite effective.

The biggest thing that we think when we hear cisplatin as oncologists are two things: kidney function, and the need to have a good kidney function, as well as the risk of hurting that kidney function depending on the dosing. So a three week dose of cisplatin can have a potential for harder injury because it’s a bigger dose to last three weeks, then a weekly dose.

The other thing we think about is dropping your bone marrow counts, specifically neutrophils, which are a part of your white blood cells that fight infection. So sometimes we have to give you a booster afterward to bring that neutrophil count until the next three weeks come so that you’re not at risk for getting an infection. It can also drop your platelets and your blood counts.

Key Takeaways

1. Cisplatin is a platinum chemotherapy that we’ve been using for many years because it’s quite effective.

2. The biggest thing that we think when we hear cisplatin as oncologists are two things: kidney function and dropping your bone marrow counts, specifically neutrophils, which are a part of your white blood cells that fight infection.

3. A three week dose of cisplatin can have a potential for harder injury because it’s a bigger dose to last three weeks, then a weekly dose.

4. Sometimes we have to give you a booster afterward to bring that neutrophil count until the next three weeks come so that you’re not at risk for getting an infection.