Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy

Targeted therapy is a form of drug that stops cancer cells from growing by interfering with specific chemicals that are essential for their proliferation (i.e. specific markers which are present as cancer cells). As a result, they only kill the bad cells, such as cancer cells, while leaving the normal or food cells alone.

What is Chemotherapy?

Chemotherapy, sometimes known as “chemical treatment,” has been around since the time of the Greeks. Chemotherapy for cancer treatment, on the other hand, started in the 1940s with the use of nitrogen mustard. Many new medications have been produced and tested as cancer therapies since then in an attempt to identify what is helpful in chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy is a cancer treatment that refers to medications that destroy cancer cells directly. It is sometimes referred to simply as "chemo." These are also known as "anti-cancer" or "antiineoplastic" medications. Other chemo medicines, such as biologic response modifiers, hormone therapy, and monoclonal antibodies, are covered in this website and act in different ways as cancer treatments.

What is Chemotherapy Used For?

Because cancer is a term that encompasses a wide range of disorders, there is no universally accepted cancer treatment. Chemotherapy is used to treat cancer for a variety of reasons:

  • To treat and cure cancer in a specific patient.
  • To decrease tumours before surgery or radiation therapy
  • To treat cancer symptoms (such as pain) when a cure isn't achievable
  • To eliminate tiny cancer cells that may remain after the known tumour has been surgically removed (called adjuvant therapy). Adjuvant therapy is used to prevent the return of cancer.