Gastrointestinal Damage by Cancer Chemotherapy

Injury to the gastrointestinal tract may occur with any number of chemotherapy drugs used for the treatment of malignant disease. Indeed, the dosage of antineoplastic drugs is limited by toxic effects not only on the lungs, kidneys, and bone marrow but also on the liver and gastrointestinal tract. Some gastrointestinal symptoms such nausea, vomiting, anorexia, abdominal pain, and diarrhea may be either the presenting features of the underlying malignancy, usually self-limiting adverse reactions to drugs, or in some cases manifestations of more severe chemotherapy-induced gastrointestinal toxicity. Anticancer drugs as a group are thought preferentially to attack rapidly dividing tissues, including the gastrointestinal mucosa: nevertheless, remarkable little attention has been directed to the gastrointestinal epithelium and to its function in man.