Chemotherapy Treatment

While chemotherapy is used most often to combat cancer, it can also be effective in treating other conditions such as immune disorders and bone marrow diseases.

How Chemotherapy Treatment Works

To understand why chemotherapy treatment works, you need to know a little bit about the role of cells in the human body.

Once the body is fully grown, most cells exist in a relatively static stage and only divide to repair damage. Cancer occurs when the cells divide abnormally. Cancer cells divide, grow and multiply much faster than most normal cells.

Chemotherapy treatment works by damaging this process of division and killing cancerous cells.

How Chemotherapy Is Used

Through the years, a wide variety of chemotherapy drugs have become available. Some are injected directly into the body intravenously. Others may be taken in pill form. Creams, gels and shots are now possible too.

There are a number of goals in administering chemotherapy treatment.

Primary cancer treatment Sometimes chemotherapy is used the only course of treatment for cancer. The goal is to kill cancer cells and cure the disease, or at least slow down its progress. This is known as curative treatment.

Chemotherapy may be used as adjuvant therapy. This means your medical team will combine chemotherapy with other treatments like surgery or radiation. In some instances, a tumor will be surgically removed and chemotherapy will target any cancer cells that still remain.

Chemotherapy can also prepare you for other types of cancer treatment. It may help slow, stop or shrink a tumor, making surgical removal or radiation more effective.

In certain cases, chemotherapy will be used to relieve symptoms of cancer, especially in the advanced stages. The goal in this instance is not to cure, but rather to make the patient more comfortable. Chemotherapy treatment of this type is known as palliative care.

Chemotherapy treatment may be done at home, in your doctor's office, in a hospital, or in an outpatient chemotherapy unit.

Side Effects

Anyone who faces chemotherapy treatment is understandably concerned about side effects.

Side effects may be described short-term or acute. Others may be long term, or chronic.

Each individual experiences side effects differently. Some people will experience side effects that others won't. But generally speaking, the following are typical.

• A certain amount of pain and discomfort is likely.
• There will be hair loss (hair grows back after chemo therapy ends)
• There are likely to be changes in bowel habits. You may experience constipation or diarrhea.
• Skin may begin to feel dry and it may bruise easily.
• Fatigue, weakness and listlessness are common.
• At times, most chemotherapy patients have a fever along with some nausea and vomiting
• Food may taste different, and appetite is likely to diminish.
• Sex drive may be affected. Chemotherapy often lowers both energy and self-esteem, which reduces the patient's desire for intimacy. Erectile dysfunction and vaginal dryness may occur.

Risks

Along with the side effects mentioned above, there are some long term risks, including

• anemia, which is a low red blood cell count,
• damage to nerves
• heart problems
• infertility
• kidney problems
• lung tissue damage
• neutropenia, which is a low white blood cell count, contributing to a weaker immune system,
• thrombocytopenia, which is a low blood platelet count.

See our related article on cancer radiation treatment.