Is Chemotherapy Only Used for Cancer?

Chemotherapy is treatment commonly used to combat cancer, where chemicals are introduced into your body to kill fast-growing cells. While mainly used for cancer, chemotherapy is sometimes helpful in treating other conditions.

Function

• Chemotherapy works by targeting cells that grow faster than normal, such as malignant cancer cells. Because our normal cells grow at a much slower rate, the medicines used in chemotherapy affect only cancer cells.

Significance

• Chemotherapy is also used in people with bone marrow disease. If a person needs a bone marrow transplant, chemotherapy is often used prior to the procedure.

Benefits

• Chemotherapy is helpful for people with some auto-immune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. However, only a very low dose is needed to be effective.

Warning

• The use of chemotherapy carries some side effects such as vomiting, diarrhea, hair loss, and exhaustion.

Benefits

• Since chemotherapy is generally given in low doses to non-cancer patients, side effects tend to be much milder.