How does chemotherapy actually work against cancer?

How chemotherapy work

Chemotherapy is using medication (drugs) to eliminate cancer cells and it works by stopping the cancer cells from growing, dividing, and multiplying into more cells. As cancer cells usually grow and divide faster than normal cells, chemotherapy has a greater effect on cancer cells. However, the drugs used in chemotherapy are strong, and can cause damage to healthy cells. This can cause side effects.  If you’re considering chemotherapy or wish to know what the best doctors for cancer in Delhi would advise you, read on.

Types of chemotherapy

Treatment through powerful drugs is standard chemotherapy, also called traditional chemotherapy, or cytotoxic chemotherapy.

Doctors use chemotherapy in differently for different times. These can be:

• Before surgery or radiation therapy to reduce tumours, called neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
• After surgery or radiation therapy to destroy remaining cancer cells, called adjuvant chemotherapy.
• As the treatment itself. For example, treating cancers of the blood or lymphatic system, like leukaemia and lymphoma.
• For recurrent cancer that comedy back after treatment.
• For metastatic cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.

The Aim of chemotherapy for how it work

The aim of chemotherapy will depend on the type of cancer and how far it has spread. At times, the goal is simply to get rid of the cancer and stop it from coming back. If this isn’t possible, you can get chemotherapy to delay or slow down cancer growth.

Delaying or slowing cancer growth with chemotherapy also helps manage the symptoms caused by the cancer. Chemotherapy with the goal of delaying cancer growth is also called palliative chemotherapy.

Choosing a chemotherapy plan

There are widely available drugs for treating cancer and a medical oncologist, will prescribe your chemotherapy. You could either receive a combination of drugs, as this may work better than just one drug.

The drugs, dose, and treatment schedule depend on many factors like the  type of cancer, size of the tumour,  location, and if or where it has spread to. This will determine the “stage” the cancer has reached. Other factors like  age and  health, body weight, other medical conditions and prior cancer treatment, if any.

How long does it take?

Chemotherapy is given for a certain projected time, say a few months or a year, and some people receive chemotherapy as long as it works.

The side effects from some of the drugs are too severe to be given every days so they are usually give with breaks, so patients have time to rest and recover in between treatment which lets healthy cells heal.

For example, dose of chemotherapy may be given on the first day and then 3 weeks before repeating the treatment. Each 3-week period is called a treatment cycle and many cycles make up the course of chemotherapy, a course will usually last about three months.

Some cancers can be treated with less recovery time between cycles, called a dose-dense schedule. This can make chemotherapy more effective against some cancers but it increases the risk of side effects. Talk with Delhi’s best doctors for cancer treatment at Oncoplus  about the best schedule for you