Chemotherapy Treatment

Chemotherapy treatment

Once a cancer diagnosis is made and then revealed to the patient, doctors and healthcare workers often educate the patient and their families about the various treatments appropriate and available. The treatment of cancer depends on the type of cancer and its stage; most cancer diseases including breast, lung and kidney cancer however, include chemotherapy treatment as a primary treatment.

Chemotherapy, popularly called 'chemo', is the type of cancer treatment that utilizes drugs in extinguishing cancer cells. By stopping or slowing the growth of destructive cancer cells, chemotherapy may be an effective cancer cure if the cancer is detected early and the effect on cells and tissues is not extensive. It is also used to control spread and growth of cancer; and to help the patient deal with symptoms and pain by shrinking aggravating tumors.  

This particular cancer treatment, however, may also harm the patient by destroying or damaging healthy cells, such as cells that cause the hair to grow. This is why most patients who undergo chemotherapy lose their hair. Side effects like this go way or get better after the chemotherapy treatment is over.

Sometimes, oncologists or the physicians who specialize in treating cancer, combine chemotherapy with other treatments like surgery, radiation therapy, or biological therapy. This is largely dependent upon other factors, such as the type and stage of the cancer; the purpose of chemotherapy (to cure, to control or to ease); and how the patient's body reacts to the drug. Chemotherapy may cause the patient's tumor to shrink, which is necessary before the patient would undergo surgery or radiation therapy; this type of chemotherapy treatment is called neo-adjuvant chemotherapy. On the other hand, adjuvant chemotherapy is responsible for destroying cancer cells that recur in the body, or that spread and metastasize into the other parts of the body.

Chemotherapy is administered in cycles; a period of treatment (drug administration) followed by a prescribed resting period. For example, the patient may be asked to undergo a week's period of chemotherapy, and then to have (two ) 2 weeks of rest. The three (3) weeks total make up one cycle of chemotherapy treatment.