Question

A 54-year-old male patient with small-cell lung cancer is receiving etoposide. the nurse will carefully monitor for which of the following?
a. Hypertension
b. Hupotension
c. Hypoglycemia
d. Tachycardia

Answer 1

I believe it is hypertension

Answer 2

The nurse will carefully monitor the 54 year old male patient for hypotension.

Though, the correct answer is not in the answer choices provided, but Hypotension is the correct answer. I also assumed the student that asked the question mistyped hypotention, which appears as Hupotention in choices of answers provided.  

Further Explanation

High doses of etoposide in a patient can cause hypotension.  In medical term, hypotension is a term used for low blood pressure. When combine with other chemotherapeutic agent, Etoposide can be used to treat different types of malignances, such as small cell lung cancer and testicular cancer.

It is semisynthetic derivative from mandrake plant substance. It induces DNA stand breaks by preventing topoisomerase II action and produces free radicals. It is primarily a first-line treatment that is administered to a patient that has small cell lung cancer.

It is also first line treatment for patient that has refractory testicular cancer. Etoposide is also active against acute leukemia, lymphomas and various sarcomas.

It has numerous adverse effect and some of the common adverse effect include myelosuppression, nausea, and vomiting. Like I said earlier, high dose of etoposide can result into hypotension.

This can also result into alcohol intoxication. This could lead to intoxication because it is mostly dissolved in ethanol because of poor aqueous solubility.  

the way etoposide works is by slowing down the growth of cancer cells

KEYWORDS:

• etoposide
• cancer cells
• lung cancer
• adverse effect