What are the purposes of Cancer Treatment with Chemotherapy
In popular usage, chemotherapy refers to antineoplastic drugs (“anticancer” drugs) used to weaken and destroy cancer cells in the body, including cells at the original cancer site and any cancer cells that may have spread to another part of the body.
Chemotherapy, often shortened to just “chemo,” is a systemic therapy, which means it affects the whole body by going through the bloodstream. Chemotherapy acts by killing cells that divide rapidly, one of the main properties of cancer cells. Healthy cells that divide rapidly under normal circumstances can also be harmed. Harm to healthy cells is what causes side effects.
Although chemotherapy treatment leads to unwanted side effects, chemotherapy still consider as one of cancer treatment options or given before surgery to shrink the cancer in some cases. Basically, the purposes of chemotherapy treatment are:
Assassinate Cancer Cells
Chemotherapy usually is used to treat patients beside cancer that has spread from the place surrounded by the body where it started (metastasized). Chemotherapy destroys cancer cell anywhere in the body. It even kill cells that own broken off from the largest tumor and traveled through the blood or lymph systems to other parts of the body.
Control the Disease
In some cases, it is used to slow the growth of cancer cells or to save the cancer from spreading to other parts of the body. When a cancer has been removed by surgery, chemotherapy may be used to keep the cancer from adjuvant therapy (after surgery or radiation). When the cancer is at an advanced stage, chemotherapy drugs may be used to relieve symptoms caused by the cancer.
To achieve the above purpose of chemotherapy treatment, it can be administered in a number of different ways to treat tumors, depending on the site of the tumor, the size of the tumor, and the health and age of the patient.
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