What Is Chemotherapy?
How Does Chemotherapy Work?
What Can Chemotherapy Do?
Is Chemotherapy Used With Other Treatments?
Which Drugs Are Given?
What About Clinical Trials?
Questions to Ask Your Doctor

What Is Chemotherapy?

How Does Chemotherapy Work?

Normal cells grow and die in a controlled way. When cancer occurs, cells in the body that are not normal keep dividing and forming more cells without control. Anticancer drugs destroy cancer cells by stopping them from growing or multiplying. Healthy cells can also be harmed, especially those that divide quickly. Harm to healthy cells is what causes side effects. These cells usually repair themselves after chemotherapy.

Because some drugs work better together than alone, two or more drugs are often given at the same time. This is called combination chemotherapy.

Other types of drugs may be used to treat your cancer. These may include certain drugs that can block the effect of your body's hormones. Or doctors may use biological therapy, which is treatment with substances that boost the body's own immune system against cancer. Your body usually makes these substances in small amounts to fight cancer and other diseases. These substances can be made in the laboratory and given to patients to destroy cancer cells or change the way the body reacts to a tumor. They may also help the body repair or make new cells destroyed by chemotherapy.

What Can Chemotherapy Do?

• To cure the cancer. Cancer is considered cured when the patient remains free of evidence of cancer cells.
• To control the cancer. This is done by keeping the cancer from spreading; slowing the cancer's growth; and killing cancer cells that may have spread to other parts of the body from the original tumor.
• To relieve symptoms that the cancer may cause. Relieving symptoms such as pain can help patients live more comfortably.

Is Chemotherapy Used With Other Treatments?

• Shrink a tumor before surgery or radiation therapy. This is called neo-adjuvant therapy.
• Help destroy any cancer cells that may remain after surgery and/or radiation therapy. This is called adjuvant chemotherapy.
• Make radiation therapy and biological therapy work better.
• Help destroy cancer if it recurs or has spread to other parts of the body from the original tumor.

Which Drugs Are Given?

• What kind of cancer you have.
• What part of the body the cancer is found.
• The effect of cancer on your normal body functions.
• Your general health.

What About Clinical Trials?

Possible benefits of clinical trials include:

• Clinical trials offer high-quality cancer care.
• If a new treatment approach is proven to work and you are taking it, you may be among the first to benefit.
• By looking at the pros and cons of clinical trials and other treatment choices, you are taking an active role in a decision that affects your life.
• You have the chance to help others and improve cancer treatment.

Possible drawbacks:

• New treatments under study are not always better than, or even as good as, standard treatment.
• Even if a new treatment has benefits, it may not work for you.
• In a study, if you are randomly assigned to have standard treatment instead of the new treatment being tested, it may not be as effective as the new approach.
• Health insurance and managed care providers do not always cover all patient care costs in a study.

Before deciding to join a clinical trial you will want to ask important questions such as: What are the possible short- and long-term risks, side effects, and benefits to me? How could the study affect my daily life? Will I have to pay for any treatment, tests, or other charges?

The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) booklet Taking Part in Clinical Trials: What Cancer Patients Need to Know lists questions you may want to ask your doctor and helps answers many of the questions you may have about clinical trials. It also informs you about your rights and protections. For example, you are free to leave a study at any time. You may order the booklet by calling NCI's Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).

Questions to Ask Your Doctor