Description
Chemotherapy is the use of medicine to treat cancer. Chemotherapy kills cancer cells. It may be used to cure cancer, help keep it from spreading, or reduce symptoms.
In some cases, people are treated with a single type of chemotherapy. But often, people get more than one type of chemotherapy at a time. This helps attack the cancer in different ways.
Targeted therapy and immunotherapy are other cancer treatments that use medicine to treat cancer.
Standard chemotherapy works by killing cancer cells and some normal cells. Targeted treatment and immunotherapy zero in on specific targets (molecules) in or on cancer cells.
How Doctors Choose Your Chemotherapy
The type and dose of chemotherapy your doctor gives you depends on many different things, including:
- The type of cancer you have
- Where the cancer first showed up in your body
- What the cancer cells look like under a microscope
- Whether the cancer has spread
- Your age and general health
