What is Chemotherapy?

Chemotherapy, or "chemical treatment," has been around since the days of the ancient Greeks. However, chemotherapy for the treatment of cancer began in the 1940s with the use of nitrogen mustard. Since then, in the attempt to discover what is effective in chemotherapy, many new drugs have been developed and tried.

Sometimes referred to simply as "chemo", chemotherapy is used most often to describe drugs that kill cancer cells directly. These are sometimes referred to as "anti-cancer" drugs or "antineoplastics." Other chemo drugs such as biologic response modifiers, hormone therapy, and monoclonal antibodies, which work in different ways to treat cancer, are included in this web-site. Today's therapy uses more than 100 drugs to treat cancer. There are even more chemo drugs still under development and investigation.

What is Chemotherapy Used For?

Since cancer is a word used to describe many different diseases, there is no one type of treatment that is used universally. Chemotherapy is used for a variety of purposes: 

1. To cure a specific cancer;
2. To control tumor growth when cure is not possible;
3. To shrink tumors before surgery or radiation therapy;
4. To relieve symptoms (such as pain); and
5. To destroy microscopic cancer cells that may be present after the known tumor is removed by surgery (called adjuvant therapy). Adjuvant therapy is given to prevent a possible cancer reoccurrence.

More Chemotherapy Information:

Chemotherapy Terms Chemotherapy Protocols - How Chemotherapy Works How Chemotherapy Is Given How Doctors Decide Which Chemotherapy Drugs To Give How Long Chemotherapy Is Given How To Tell If Chemotherapy Is Working Cancer Cells & Chemotherapy Types of Chemotherapy Targeted Therapy The Immune System About Immunotherapy Hormone Therapy Chemoporotective Agents Chemotherapy Resistance Short & Long Term Side Effects of Chemotherapy Nadir Cancer Clinical Trials

Frequently Asked Questions:

Bone Marrow Biopsy Flu Shot and Chemotherapy Together? Energy Conservation - Cancer Therapy and Fatigue Legitimate Treatments for Cancer Menopause & Chemotherapy Sperm Banking What Is Complementary Medicine?