How Chemotherapy Works

Chemotherapy is one of the most common treatments for cancer. It uses certain drugs to kill cancer cells or to stop them from growing and spreading to other parts of your body. Your doctor might prescribe chemo by itself or with surgery or radiation therapy. You might also take newer kinds of cancer-fighting drugs along with chemotherapy.

You can take chemo as pills or shots. You might go to a clinic or hospital so you can get the drugs through an IV, what doctors call an infusion.

To help your body regain strength and grow new, healthy cells, you might take the drugs over a few weeks. You might take doses every day, every week, or every month. It depends on the type of cancer you have and how severe it is.

Your cancer doctor, called an oncologist, may prescribe one chemo drug or a mix of different ones, depending on:

Even after surgery to remove a tumor, your body might still have cancer cells. These cells can grow new tumors or spread the cancer to other parts of your body.

Chemotherapy drugs help destroy, shrink, or control those cells. It might also treat symptoms the cancer causes, like pain. You might also get chemo to shrink a tumor before your doctor removes it in surgery.

Chemotherapy drugs work in a few different ways. They can:

There are dozens of chemotherapy drugs that doctors can prescribe. They’re often divided into groups based on how they work and what they’re made of. Each group of drugs destroys or shrinks cancer cells in a different way.

Chemotherapy is a common cancer treatment, but today, doctors often prescribe other kinds of cancer medicines, such as targeted therapies, hormone therapy, and immunotherapy. Unlike chemo, these types of medicine are better at attacking only cancer cells and leaving healthy cells alone. That means they cause milder side effects. Your doctor might recommend that you take them along with chemo drugs or on their own.

Your oncologist will watch your body’s response during and after treatment.

She’ll look for signs that your tumor is shrinking or growing. She’ll use tests like physical exams, blood tests, or imaging scans like X-rays.

If your treatment doesn’t seem to be working, she might give you a different dose or a mix of other treatments.

SOURCES:

The Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania: “Chemotherapy Primer: Why? What? And How?”

American Cancer Society: “Deciding Which Chemotherapy Drugs to Use,” “Different Types of Chemotherapy Drugs,” “Questions About Chemotherapy,” “Types of Targeted Therapies Used to Treat Cancer.”

University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center: “Chemotherapy.”

National Cancer Institute: “Chemotherapy and You.”

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How Chemotherapy Works

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