Chemotherapy

Cancers are often treated with surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or combinations of these therapies. Chemotherapy may consist of medicines given by vein, by mouth, or by other routes. Chemotherapy drugs work in many different ways, but all are designed to arrest the growth or to kill cancer cells.

There are many different types of chemotherapy, and specific drugs or combinations of drugs are used for different types of cancers. While chemotherapy has side effects, these are managed by supportive care and medications to relieve symptoms. Great advances have been made in recent years not only in cancer control, but in preventing or relieving symptoms caused by the disease and the treatments. Which medications are right for an individual patient is determined by the type of cancer cell, where it is in the body, other health issues that the patient might have, and the results of previous clinical trials and experience with that type of cancer. A treatment plan is developed by your physicians in consultation with you, and every patient always has the right to understand and consent to each and any treatment.