What Is Chemotherapy

By Egbodo Peter

Chemotherapy is the process of killing cancer cells with chemicals. This kind of cancer treatment functions by preventing the growth, division, and division of cancer cells.

Numerous types of cancer can be treated with chemotherapy. Chemotherapy may be referred to as cytotoxic chemotherapy, normal chemotherapy, or classic chemotherapy by your doctor.

You will learn some basic information about chemotherapy from this article.

How Does Chemotherapy Treat Cancer?

Chemotherapy is a systemic medication. This means it travels through the bloodstream and reaches all parts of the body.

There are many different kinds of chemotherapy. In general, drugs used for chemotherapy are powerful chemicals that treat cancer by attacking cells during specific parts of the cell cycle. All cells go through the cell cycle, which is how new cells are made. Cancer cells go through this process faster than normal cells, so chemotherapy has more of an effect on these fast-growing cells.

Because chemotherapy travels through the whole body, it can also damage healthy cells as they go through their normal cell cycle. This is why chemotherapy can cause side effects like hair loss and nausea.

What Are Chemotherapy’s Intended Outcomes?

Chemotherapy objectives vary depending on the type and extent of your cancer. Chemotherapy can be administered as a stand-alone treatment or as a component of a multimodal treatment regimen. Chemotherapy can be used, for example:

as the main course of action. Chemotherapy treatments can sometimes be used to eradicate cancer completely and prevent recurrence. We could refer to this as “curative chemotherapy.”

prior to other therapies. To reduce tumor size, chemotherapy can be administered prior to radiation therapy or surgery. We can refer to this as “Adjuvant chemotherapy.”

To slow the progression of cancer and relieve symptoms. Even when the cancer is not curable, chemotherapy can partially shrink tumors and prevent tumor growth and spread for various lengths of time. In such settings, chemotherapy can extend survival, relieve cancer-related symptoms, and improve quality of life. Chemotherapy used for these purposes is sometimes called “palliative chemotherapy.”

Chemotherapy can be used to treat many types of cancers. It can also be used to treat recurrent cancer and metastatic cancer. Recurrent cancer is cancer that comes back after treatment. Metastatic cancer is cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.

What Factors Determine A Chemotherapy Plan?

Numerous medications are available to treat cancer. A medical oncologist is a physician who specializes in using medication to treat cancer. Your chemist will be prescribed by a physician of this kind. A mix of medications may be given to you, as this can occasionally be more effective than taking one medication alone.

Numerous factors determine the medicines, dosage, and course of treatment. Among them are:

• The type of cancer
• The stage of the cancer. Cancer stage is determined by the size and location of the tumor and whether or not the cancer has spread. tumor size, its location, and if or where it has spread.
• Your age and general health
• Your body weight
• The possible side effects of each drug. If a drug causes you to have too many side effects, this can also change your treatment plan.
• Any other medical conditions you have.
• Previous cancer treatments.

Where Do You Receive Chemotherapy?

Chemotherapy can be given at a medical center or taken at home, depending on the specific drug.

Your health care team may need you to come in regularly to the clinic, doctor’s office, or hospital to receive the chemotherapy. This may be called outpatient treatment.