Q: My 34 years old son is suffering from Hodgkin's lymphoma, stage IA for the last four months. He is undergoing ABVD chemotherapy and has taken 2 cycles; four cycles are still left. Prior to test, his blood count, haemoglobin and platelet count were all within normal range. Only his SGPT and SGOT were above the normal level, i.e. 154 IU/l and 794 IU/l respectively. The doctor said that it is due to the chemotherapy drugs and it will become normal as soon as his treatment gets over. What should we do now? Should he stop the treatment? Please advise.

A:Your oncologist is absolutely right in saying that the raised levels of the liver enzymes (SGOT & SGPT) are due to the chemotherapy drugs. If the patient is tolerating the chemotherapy well, there is no reason to stop the treatment in between. As a general rule, the chemotherapy may be withheld temporarily if the SGOT & SGPT values are more than 3 times the upper limit of normal. Your treating oncologist remains the best judge to handle such a situation, because we have to take many factors into consideration before we arrive at a conclusion to interrupt treatment. You can try using SILAMYRIN tablets or UDILIV tablets along with the chemotherapy to help the enzyme values return back to normal or near normal.