What Are Chemo Treatments?

Patients undergo chemo treatments, also known as chemotherapy, to treat their cancer. You can receive treatment in your own home, the hospital, your doctor's office or a clinic. Patients undergo different applications and lengths of chemo treatment. These drug also cause some side effects.

How It Works

• Cancer cells grow and multiply quickly. Chemo treatments stop or slow the growth of cancer cells in your body. Chemo can destroy so many cancer cells that a physician can no longer find any malignant cells in your body, essentially curing the cancer. In other patients, it only controls the cancer, preventing the cancer from spreading to other areas of your body, slowing its growth or obliterating the cancer cells that have already spread. Finally, it can shrink tumors, providing relief from pain or pressure caused by the tumor and preparing your body for other treatments such as surgery or radiation therapy.

Chemo Drugs

• Your doctor prescribes the type of chemo drugs you receive based on the cancer type, stage of the cancer, your overall health and prior cancer treatments. He will also take into consideration your preference. Topical chemo creams or gels applied to the skin treat some types of skin cancer. During surgery, other chemo drugs can be injected directly into a cancer tumor, or the doctor can implant wafers of drugs near the tumor. Inject the chemo drugs intravenously or swallow chemo pills or capsules. Doctors give some cancer patients chemo shots through needles.

Frequency of Treatment

• How often you receive chemo treatment depends on certain factors: the type of cancer, the stage of cancer, your end goal -- to cure the cancer, slow its growth or ease its symptoms -- the type of chemo drug, and how your body handles the chemo treatment. Patients receive chemo treatments in cycles that allow the body to recover from the chemo drugs. For example, a doctor gives you one week of chemo treatment followed by three weeks of no treatment so your body can build new healthy cells. One cycle consists of these four weeks. Some patients go through several cycles.

Side Effects

• Chemo not only attacks cancer cells but also healthy cells that divide quickly, which leads to negative side effects. The side effects you experience from chemo treatment depend on the type of chemo drugs your take, but common side effects of the drugs include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hair loss, lack of appetite, fatigue, fever, sores in your mouth, pain, constipation and vulnerability to bruising. Usually these side effects end with the treatments, but you might suffer long term or late developing side effects such as damaged lung tissue, heart issues, infertility, kidney problems and damage to your nerves.