Overview
Chemotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses medication to kill or slow the growth of cancer cells.
Chemotherapy is administered at the Cancer Care Clinic. In some cases, you may be admitted to the hospital for a few days to receive inpatient chemotherapy instead.
Our medical oncologists work with you to plan your treatment and determine if chemotherapy is right for you. Medical oncologists are physicians who specialize in treating cancer with medication, including chemotherapy and hormone therapy.
Chemotherapy can be used in different ways depending on the type of cancer you have and how far it has spread. A chemotherapy medication might be given on its own or in combination with other medications. This is called combination chemotherapy.
Most chemotherapy is given as a systemic therapy, which means that the medication affects your whole body. The chemotherapy medication travels through the bloodstream, which enables them to attack cancer cells almost anywhere in the body.
Chemotherapy can also be combined with non-drug treatments such as surgery or radiation therapy. For example, you may need chemotherapy before surgery to shrink the tumour. This makes the surgery more likely to be successful. You may also receive chemotherapy after surgery to get rid of any remaining cancer cells.
Chemotherapy may also be combined with other treatments, such as immunotherapy or targeted therapy. Immunotherapy helps your immune system fight the cancer, while targeted therapy focuses on attacking the proteins that helps cancer cells grow and spread.
In some cases, chemotherapy may be used to relieve your symptoms and improve your quality of life.
What to expect
You may receive chemotherapy directly into your vein through an intravenous (IV) injection or in the form of a pill.
Our Cancer care team will tell you about the precautions you need to take while undergoing chemotherapy.
Please inform us of any medication you are taking. This includes both prescription and non-prescription medication, as well as supplements and vitamins. This is very important for the oncologist to know, as any of these may interact with chemotherapy and be a safety risk.
While undergoing chemotherapy, you also need to get blood tests, X-rays or other imaging tests. This helps us see how the treatment is working.
Our Cancer care team is available to answer any questions you may have. We can also help you with any side-effects you are experiencing.
