Chemotherapy Treatment

Traditional or standard chemotherapy is one of the best ways to treat many cancers. Chemotherapy, or chemo, is considered a systemic treatment because the drugs travel throughout the body, killing cancer cells that have spread, or metastasized, to parts of the body far away from the original tumor.

Chemotherapy is usually used to cure or control cancer, but also may be used as part of a palliative plan. If chemo cures cancer, that means it destroys all of the cancer cells present; the cancer cells have gone away. Sometimes chemo can shrink tumors or stop it from spreading but doesn’t destroy all of the cancer cells present. In this way, the cancer is controlled, helping the patient feel better and live longer.

Other times, when the cancer is considered advanced, chemo can be used to help ease symptoms caused by the cancer. In this instance, it is part of palliative care.