Basic Information About Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy (often referred to as "Chemo") is the use of drugs to treat disease.

Chemotherapy has one of three goals: cure, remission, or palliation (relief of pain).

The use of drugs to treat cancer started after World War II when it was realized that Mustard Gas affected cancer cells.

Chemotherapy is aimed at rapidly reproducing cells. Different drugs work on different cyles of cell reproduction.

A single drug can be used to treat cancer. However, for the most part, a combination of drugs with different actions can work together to kill more cancer cells. (The use of more than one drug in chemotherapy is called combination chemotherapy.) A combination can also reduce the chance that the cancer may become resistant to any one chemo drug. More than 100 chemo drugs are used in many combinations.

Chemo is sometimes used alone. More often it is used in combination with other treatments such as surgery or radiation. When used with other treatments, chemotherapy is known as neoadjuvant therapy (before surgery or radiation), or as adjuvant therapy (after surgery or radiation).

Chemotherapy is also known as: Chemo, Antineoplastic (meaning anti-cancer) therapy, and Cytotoxic (cell-killing) therapy.

• How Does Chemotherapy Work?
• History Of Chemotherapy
• The Goals of Treatment With Chemotherapy
• How Chemotherapy Treatments Are Given
• Will Chemotherapy Be My Only Treatment For Cancer?
• How Chemotherapy Is Different From Other Cancer Treatments
• How Often Chemotherapy Is Given And For How Long

Chemotherapy Form

Chemotherapy comes in two forms:

• a pill
• a liquid that enters the body through a needle in a vein (intraveneously). (Those clear plastic bags of liquid that hang on a pole that we see on every t.v. show that takes place in a hospital).

Chemotherapy injections are given in a private foctor's office, in a hospital, or in a cancer center.

Intraveneous chemotherapy is given in cycles. For example, a dose may be given 5 days a week for a few weeks, then a few weeks without, then more weeks with chemo. Or it may be given once a week for a number of weeks, etc. The time off gives your body a chance to recover between treatments. A full course of chemo could be a few months, or 12 months, or longer or shorter depending on the spefic situation.

While pills may be more convenient because they can be taken anywhere, they may not be treated the same by your health insurance company as chemotherapy given intraveneously. Chemo given intraveneously is covered like a treatment. Chemo given in pill form may be treated like a drug which means you pay a larger share of the cost.

Chemotherapy: How Intraveneous Chemotherapy Is Given

Chemotherapy is given in a health facility such as a hospital or outpatient facility.

Before giving the dose, a nurse will draw your blood to check whether the treatment to date has affected the blood-producing cells in your bone marrow or the function of your liver. If the results are okay, the nurse will start the intraveneous line (IV) through which the drug will be injected.

If the blood results are not okay, your oncologist may lower the dose or postpone the treatment.