What is Chemotherapy

What is chemotherapy? For people who want to know what is chemotherapy, it is better for them to have a basic understanding of the killer disease cancer first. So before we understand what is chemotherapy, let us first delve into the facts regarding cancer. Cancer is caused when cells in the human body grow and divide abnormally giving rise to malignant growths and tumors in the body. Cancer causing cells have the ability to invade good cells thereby damaging all cells in the body over a period of time leading to fatal results. There are different types of cancer and many treatments are now available. Some forms of cancer are curable if detected early but some do not have a permanent cure at this point in time.

Chemotherapy is a form of treatment that is given to eliminate cancer causing cells or stop them from dividing. What is chemotherapy procedure? A chemotherapy procedure is the administration of chemotherapy drugs to a cancer affected patient either intravenously or orally. It means that chemotherapy drugs can be given orally to a patient or by injecting it directly into the bloodstream through the patient’s veins. Chemotherapy treatments are of two types; palliative chemotherapy, which is given to eliminate cancer and control pain and adjuvant chemotherapy, which is given to prevent recurrence of cancer, post surgery or post radiation treatment.