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There are 3 possible goals for chemotherapy treatment.
- Cure:
If possible, chemotherapy is used to cure the cancer, meaning that the
tumor or cancer disappears and does not return. However, most doctors
do not use the word "cure" except as a possibility or intention. When
giving treatment that has a chance of curing a person's cancer, the
doctor may describe it as treatment with curative intent.
But it can take many years to know whether a person's cancer is
actually cured.
- Control:
If cure is not possible, the goal may be to control the disease - to
shrink any tumors and to stop the cancer from growing and spreading.
This can help someone with cancer feel better and hopefully live
longer. In many cases, the cancer does not completely go away but is
controlled and managed as a chronic disease, much like hypertension or
diabetes. In other cases, the cancer may even seem to have gone away
for a while, but it is expected to come back.
- Palliation:
When the cancer is at an advanced stage, chemotherapy drugs may be used
to relieve symptoms caused by the cancer. When the only goal of
treatment is to improve the quality of life, it is called palliation.
For some people, chemotherapy is the only treatment used for
their cancer. In other cases, chemotherapy may be given along with
other treatments. It may be used as neoadjuvant therapy (before surgery
or radiation), or as adjuvant
therapy (after surgery or radiation).
- Adjuvant
chemotherapy: After a cancer is removed with surgery,
there may still be some cancer cells left behind that cannot be seen.
When drugs are used to kill those unseen cancer cells, it is called
adjuvant chemotherapy. Adjuvant treatment can also be given after using
radiation to kill the cancer -- such as adjuvant hormone therapy after
radiation for prostate cancer.
- Neoadjuvant
chemotherapy is when chemotherapy is given before the main
cancer treatment (such as surgery or radiation). Giving chemotherapy
first can shrink a large tumor, making it easier to remove with
surgery. Shrinking the tumor may also allow it to be treated more
easily with radiation. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy also kills small
deposits of cancer cells that cannot be seen on scans or x-rays.
Go back
to Chemotherapy
Principles
Last Medical Review: 06/17/2009
Last Revised: 06/17/2009
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