4.2. Cancer-Treatment of Choice

4.2.1. Introduction to Cancer Chemotherapy

• What is Chemotherapy? Chemotherapy is a kind of treatment that uses drugs to attack cancer cells. It is called a "systemic treatment" since the drug, entering through the blood stream, travels throughout the body and kills cancer cells at their sites. Chemotherapy, often shortened to just "chemo". The drugs may rarely be intended to have a local effect, but in most cases, the intention is to destroy cancer cells wherever they may exist in the body.
• Chemotherapeutic drugs are chemically designed to target cells that are dividing and growing rapidly. Once they reach the cancer cells, they act to retard their growth, eventually resulting in their destruction.
• Chemotherapy may be given at home, in a clinic or in a hospital. The frequency of chemotherapy can be daily, weekly, monthly or an on-off schedule depending on the type of drug, the body's response and the type of cancer. The chemotherapy is decided on the basis of the type of cancer. The dosage is calculated on the basis of the patient's body weight and the drug's toxicity.
• The chemotherapy is concerned with the whole body.
• Chemotherapy is used to treat:
  • early-stage invasive breast cancer to get rid of any cancer cells that may be left behind after surgery and to reduce the risk of the cancer coming back
  • advanced-stage breast cancer to destroy or damage the cancer cells as much as possible
• In some cases, chemotherapy is given before surgery to shrink the cancer.
• At present more than 50 anticancer drugs have been discovered. They are used in several ways:
  • Monotherapy or only one drug
  • Combination chemotherapy or a group of drugs which work together
  • Combined modality or chemotherapy along with other treatment such as surgery and radiotherapy
• The drugs are delivered to the affected cells in the following forms:
  • Oral (tablet form, by mouth)
  • Intravenous or Intramuscular (injected by needle into a vein or muscle)
  • Intrathecal chemotherapy (injected through a needle in the back)

4.2.2. History of Cancer Chemotherapy