They may be given in a certain order or in certain combinations called combination chemotherapy. Different drugs that work in different ways can work together to kill more cancer cells. This can also help lower the chance that the cancer may become resistant to any one chemo drug. Sometimes chemo is the only treatment you need. More often, chemo is used with surgery or radiation therapy or both.
And it's sometimes used with other drugs, such as targeted therapy, hormone therapy, or immunotherapy. For example, chemo may be used In some cases, the best choice of doses and schedules for each chemo drug is clearly known and based on research studies. In other cases, less may be known about the best way to treat certain types and stages of cancer. Or, a patient might have another health condition that makes the doctor think a certain treatment is not the best choice because of side effects or other possible problems.
In these cases, different doctors might choose different drug combinations with different schedules. The team takes all these factors into account, along with information from research studies published in medical journals and textbooks describing the outcomes of similar patients treated with chemo. Most chemotherapy chemo drugs are strong medicines that have a fairly narrow range for dose safety and effectiveness. Taking too little of a drug will not treat the cancer well and taking too much may cause life-threatening side effects.
For this reason, doctors must calculate chemo doses very carefully. Depending on the drug s to be given, there are different ways to determine chemo doses. Most chemo drugs are measured in milligrams mg. Some chemo doses are determined based on body surface area BSA , which are calculated using height and weight. This content does not have an English version. This content does not have an Arabic version. Overview Chemotherapy is a drug treatment that uses powerful chemicals to kill fast-growing cells in your body.
Request an Appointment at Mayo Clinic. Share on: Facebook Twitter. Show references Chemotherapy and you: Support for people with cancer. National Cancer Institute. Accessed Oct. Niederhuber JE, et al. Cancer pharmacology. In: Abeloff's Clinical Oncology. Elsevier; Accessed Sept. What to expect when having chemotherapy. Cyclophosphamide Cytoxan. American College of Rheumatology. Warner KJ. Allscripts EPSi. Mayo Clinic. Related Acute lymphocytic leukemia Acute myelogenous leukemia Anal cancer Bladder cancer Bone cancer Bone metastasis Brain tumor Breast cancer Cancer Cancer treatment for men: Possible sexual side effects Cancer treatment myths Carcinoid syndrome Castleman disease Cervical cancer Chemo Targets Chemotherapy and hair loss: What to expect during treatment Chemotherapy and sex: Is sexual activity OK during treatment?
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Many different kinds of chemotherapy or chemo drugs are used to treat cancer — either alone or in combination with other drugs or treatments. These drugs are very different in their chemical composition what they are made of , how they are prescribed and given, how useful they are in treating certain types of cancer, and the side effects they might have.
It's important to know that not all medicines and drugs to treat cancer work the same way. Other drugs to treat cancer work differently, such as targeted therapy , hormone therapy, and immunotherapy. The information below describes how traditional or standard chemotherapy works. Every time any new cell is formed, it goes through a usual process to become a fully functioning or mature cell. The process involves a series of phases and is called the cell cycle.
Chemotherapy drugs target cells at different phases of the cell cycle. Understanding how these drugs work helps doctors predict which drugs are likely to work well together. Doctors can also plan how often doses of each drug should be given based on the timing of the cell phases. Cancer cells tend to form new cells more quickly than normal cells and this makes them a better target for chemotherapy drugs. This means normal cells are damaged along with the cancer cells, and this causes side effects.
Each time chemo is given, it means trying to find a balance between killing the cancer cells in order to cure or control the disease and sparing the normal cells to lessen side effects.
The good news is that most normal cells will recover from the effects of chemo over time. But cancer cells are mutated not normal cells, and they usually do not recover from the effects of chemo.
This is why chemo is good at killing many types of cancer cells. Chemo drugs can be grouped by how they work, their chemical structure, and their relationships to other drugs. Some drugs work in more than one way, and may belong to more than one group. Note: not all chemotherapy drugs are listed here. Knowing how the drug works is important in predicting side effects from it.
This helps doctors decide which drugs are likely to work well together. If more than one drug will be used, this information also helps them plan exactly when each of the drugs should be given in which order and how often.
Alkylating agents keep the cell from reproducing making copies of itself by damaging its DNA.
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