Your doctor might recommend chemotherapy for several reasons. The goal might be:
• to cure a specific cancer;
• to control tumor growth when a cure isn't possible;
• to relieve symptoms such as pain;
• to shrink tumors before surgery or radiation therapy; or
• to destroy microscopic metastases after tumors are removed surgically.
Whereas surgery and radiation therapy are used to treat localized tumors, chemotherapy treats the whole body. It destroys malignancies of the blood, bone marrow and the lymphatic system (leukemias and lymphomas). It destroys cancer cells that have broken off from solid tumors and spread through the blood or lymph systems to various parts of the body.
Adjuvant Therapy When chemotherapy is used to eliminate small invisible metastases after surgery or radiation therapy, it is known as adjuvant therapy. This is given when there is a high risk of a cancer recurring because small cells that couldn't be detected during surgery or any other way may remain and later grow back.
Adjuvant chemotherapy usually involves combinations of drugs known to be effective against particular tumors. They are given in the highest dosages the patient can tolerate. And they will usually be given as soon as possible after surgery or radiotherapy since the longer the delay, the less chance of cure. In some cases,
