Question: Exactly how does leucovorin work?
Answer: By itself, leucovorin isn't able to fight cancer at all. Rather, it helps patients by increasing the effectiveness of another drug, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU).
As 5-FU does its job (killing cancer cells), it creates a byproduct. This byproduct is called fluorodeoxyuridine monophosphate. Leucovorin also creates a byproduct; it's called methylene tetrahydrofolate. By themselves, these byproducts don't do anything to help kill cancer. But when the two meet up, they become a dynamic duo. Together, they hunt out an enzyme in cells called thymidylate synthase. Cells need thymidylate synthase in order to create thymidylate. What's so great about thymidylate? Cells need thymidylate to create thymine. Who cares if cells create thymine? Cells. It's a building block of DNA. They die without it.
So, it's somewhat of an involved process, but most things in the body are. Basically though, you can think of it this way. A unit of 5-FU is like a grenade. When the grenade strikes its target (the cancer cell), it explodes and shrapnel goes flying. The grenade already did its damage; the target may or may not be dead. Leucovorin is like a magic wind that scoops up the shrapnel from the ground, whirls it around, and smacks the target with it a second time. It's basically a second attack that uses the leftovers from the first attack. Without the shrapnel, the wind would be useless; without the 5-FU, the leucovorin would be useless.
Related Questions:
As 5-FU does its job (killing cancer cells), it creates a byproduct. This byproduct is called fluorodeoxyuridine monophosphate. Leucovorin also creates a byproduct; it's called methylene tetrahydrofolate. By themselves, these byproducts don't do anything to help kill cancer. But when the two meet up, they become a dynamic duo. Together, they hunt out an enzyme in cells called thymidylate synthase. Cells need thymidylate synthase in order to create thymidylate. What's so great about thymidylate? Cells need thymidylate to create thymine. Who cares if cells create thymine? Cells. It's a building block of DNA. They die without it.
So, it's somewhat of an involved process, but most things in the body are. Basically though, you can think of it this way. A unit of 5-FU is like a grenade. When the grenade strikes its target (the cancer cell), it explodes and shrapnel goes flying. The grenade already did its damage; the target may or may not be dead. Leucovorin is like a magic wind that scoops up the shrapnel from the ground, whirls it around, and smacks the target with it a second time. It's basically a second attack that uses the leftovers from the first attack. Without the shrapnel, the wind would be useless; without the 5-FU, the leucovorin would be useless.
Related Questions:
- What is leucovorin?
- What does leucovorin look like?
- How is leucovorin administered?
- How can I tell if they're administering leucovorin properly?
- What are the side effects of leucovorin?
- Are there any food or drug interactions associated with leucovorin?
- Who makes Leucovorin and what's their contact information?
- I'd like to read the Leucovorin product insert.
