Chemotherapy uses medication to treat cancer by killing rapidly dividing cells. Therefore, rapidly dividing healthy cells die at the same time as the cancer cells. Administered in cycles, chemotherapy drugs may be taken daily, weekly, or monthly for a few months or several months, with a recovery period after each treatment. Recovery periods allow time for your body to rest and produce new, healthy cells to replace the ones previously destroyed during treatment. Chemotherapy can be the only treatment for cancer or used in combination with surgery, radiation therapy or a bone marrow transplant. One advantage of using chemotherapy is that it treats the whole body by destroying cells that have broken away from the original cancer site.

Therefore, when cancer is wide spread, chemotherapy can be an effective way to control it. It may prolong life by controlling the spread and growth of cancer and relieve symptoms, thereby enhancing the quality of life. It can reduce the size of a tumor before surgery or eliminate any remaining cancer cells after surgery. Chemotherapy may be given as a combination of drugs which work together to destroy cancer cells. Drugs with different actions at the cellular level can combine to destroy more cancer cells and help reduce the risk of a cancer becoming resistant to a certain drug. Doctors typically recommend using combinations previously proven effective in treating your type of cancer in people with similar conditions. Other factors considered in choosing the drugs used are the type, stage, and grade of your cancer, your age, your general health, and whether you will tolerate the temporary side effects.

There are several ways to administer chemotherapy. One way is rapidly distributing it throughout the body is by using an IV which involves injecting a needle it into a vein through the skin or it may be swallowed it in the form of a pill. In the treatment of localized skin cancer, topical application to the skin may be necessary. Injections directly into a muscle or under the skin may also be given. Regardless of how chemotherapy medications are given, they generally travel through your entire body in your bloodstream.
Temporary side effects associated with chemotherapy are hair loss, dry mouth or mouth sores, painful swallowing, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea or constipation, fatigue, bleeding, infertility, loss of appetite or changes in the taste of food, thinking and memory impairment, and being susceptible to infections. Most temporary side effects subside after treatments stop. There is also the possibility of damage to the liver, the heart, the lungs, and the nerves. The possibility exists of developing another cancer, including Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, leukemia and some tumors.

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