Chemotherapy (also known as chemo) is commonly used to treat a disease, such as cancer.

How does chemotherapy work?

Our body tissues consist of billions of individual cells. Once we are fully-grown, the body’s cells spend most of their time in a resting state and only divide if they need to repair damage. When cells divide, they split into two identical new cells; where there was one cell, there are now two and these then divide to make four and then eight and so on. In cancer, the cells keep on dividing until there is a mass of cells that form a lump called a tumour.

Chemotherapy uses medication (cytostatics) to stop or slow the growth of cancer cells, which grow and divide quickly. More than 100 chemotherapy medications can be used in many combinations. While a single chemotherapy medication can be used to treat cancer, often multiple medications are used in a certain order or in certain combinations (combination chemotherapy). Multiple medications with different actions can work together to kill more cancer cells and also reduce the possibility of the cancer becoming resistant to any one chemotherapy medication.

Chemotherapy can also harm healthy cells that divide quickly, such as those that line your mouth and intestines or cause your hair to grow. Damage to healthy cells may cause side effects but these often improve or disappear when chemotherapy is discontinued.

How is chemotherapy administered?

    • Injection into the bloodstream (usually through a vein)
    • Drip (intravenous infusion) into the bloodstream through a vein
    • Tablets
    • Capsules.

Because medications that are given in this way travel in the bloodstream, they can reach cancer cells almost anywhere in the body that go undetected in examinations and can therefore not be targeted with surgery or radiation. This is known as systemic treatment.

What is the goal of chemo?

Depending on the type of cancer, its stage (how far it has spread), and where you are in the treatment process, chemo can be used to:

    • Cure the cancer
    • Keep the cancer from spreading
    • Slow the cancer’s growth
    • Kill cancer cells that may have spread to other parts of the body
    • Relieve symptoms caused by cancer.

Your doctor will probably talk to you about the goal of your chemotherapy before you start treatment.

 

Sources
www.cancer.org
www.cancerresearchuk.org
www.medicinenet.com
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov