We Know: How Chemotherapy Works What is chemotherapy? Chemotherapy are chemicals (chemo) used to treat (therapy) cancer. Different chemotherapy drugs can be used for different purposes, but the goal is to reduce or eliminate cancerous cells within the body. There are some downsides to chemotherapy but the benefits often outweigh them. What's the process of undergoing chemotherapy? Prior to having surgery to remove cancerous growths, a doctor may prescribe chemotherapy to reduce the tumor as much as possible. Chemotherapy can also kill cancerous cells in areas other than where the tumor is located. Chemotherapy treatments are generally referred to as cycles or rounds. These are the individual visits to your doctor to get the treatment. The sum total of cycles or rounds is referred to as a course. Each situation is different and so a patient may undergo anywhere from four to eight cycles in a course. How does chemotherapy work? The goal of chemotherapy is to destroy cancerous cells. It does this by destroying cells as they split or just before they split. This is the only way to damage a cell. Unfortunately, chemotherapy can't differentiate between healthy cells and cancerous cells. However, cancerous cells split much more often than healthy cells and so chemotherapy will destroy more cancerous cells than healthy ones. Why can chemotherapy cause skin problems, nausea, and loss of hair? Some body tissues are constantly rejuvenating themselves, and this requires the splitting of cells to form new ones. For instance, hair growth and the rejuvenation of skin require new cells. So too does the lining of your digestive system. Because chemotherapy destroys any cells that are on the verge of splitting or are in the process of it, it affects the healthy cells associated with hair, skin, and the digestive system. The good side to this is that because those healthy cells are constantly trying to split, once the course of chemotherapy is completed, the hair, skin, and digestive system can recover. Quite often, the affects of chemotherapy are only present while the treatment is ongoing, so you may experience diarrhea and other symptoms at the time of each cycle but not during the entire course. Can chemotherapy cure everyone who has cancer? Chemotherapy is very effective when treating Hodgkin's lymphoma, testicular cancer, and some other types of cancer. Chemotherapy is often used in conjunction with other approaches such as surgery. It can be used after surgery to decrease the chances of cancer returning. If chemotherapy can't cure me, why should I go through with it? Chemotherapy can reduce or eliminate cancer symptoms. It can also reduce the cancer itself. In many cases, chemotherapy can eliminate any signs of cancer which is what's referred to as going into remission.
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