Chemotherapy Overview
For more information, please view the topics in the green box to the right.
With chemotherapy a variety of drugs are used to treat cancer. The drugs are powerful and very effective at destroying cancer cells.
Chemotherapy is used for several different reasons. For instance, it may be used to cure cancer. Used this way it destroys all the cancer cells so that no more can be detected. It may be used to control cancer. The treatments keep cancer cells from growing and spreading to other parts of the body. The treatments also destroy cancer cells that have already spread. It may be used to relieve cancer symptoms. This is called palliative care. This treatment may shrink tumors that cause pain or pressure or other types of symptoms.
Cancer cells grow and divide quickly. When chemotherapy is used to destroy cancer cells, it may also destroy healthy cells that divide quickly. These cells can be found in your mouth, your intestines, and among the cells that cause your hair to grow. Damage to these cells causes side effects. These may improve over time. Sometimes they go away once the chemotherapy stops.
If you receive chemotherapy you may use it alone or in combination with other treatments. These treatments include:
- surgery
- radiation therapy
- biological therapy
Chemotherapy may be used before surgery or radiation to make a tumor smaller. When it is, it’s called neo-adjuvant chemotherapy. Sometimes it’s used after surgery or radiation to destroy cancer cells. Then it’s known as adjuvant chemotherapy. Using chemotherapy with radiation or biotherapy may work better than using it by itself.
Recurrent cancer is cancer that comes back after treatment. If you have recurrent cancer, you may receive chemotherapy to destroy the cancer cells. Another common use of chemotherapy is to destroy cancer cells that have spread to other parts of the body. When cancer spreads to other body parts it’s known as metastatic cancer.
Some drugs are used to treat many different types of cancer. Others are used for just one or two types of cancer. The chemotherapy treatment you receive will depend upon on type of cancer you have. It will also depend on:
- how advanced your cancer is
- your health history
- whether you have heart disease, liver disease or kidney disease
- whether you have had chemotherapy before
