Chemotherapy is a common cancer treatment. Learn more about how it works, what to expect during treatment, common side effects, and other FAQs.

Palliative chemotherapy: This treatment aims to improve quality of life by diminishing or stabilizing cancer burden, but it cannot rid the body of all the cancer as it is too advanced.

While preventative chemotherapy can treat many different kinds of cancer, it is most commonly used in patients who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, colon cancer or ovarian cancer.

— Palliative chemotherapy: This treatment aims to improve quality of life by diminishing or stabilizing cancer burden, but it cannot rid the body of all the cancer as it is too advanced.

Chemotherapy is not always worth the side effects. For some cancers, especially those that don't spread rapidly, the likelihood that chemotherapy will improve the patient's outcome may be small.

These chemotherapy drugs can, at times, be administered as oral pills or capsules, which would really make it easier for administration at home,” explains Dr Saxena. Also Read: What is the ...

“The medical term used for preventative chemotherapy is adjuvant chemotherapy,” says Heloisa Soares, MD, PhD, medical oncologist specializing in gastrointestinal and neuroendocrine cancers and ...

Susan F. Slovin, M.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center March 16, 2009 -- Question: What is chemotherapy, how is it administered for prostate cancer, and what are the risks/side effects ...

Chemotherapy creams can be applied to the skin to treat some forms of skin cancer; other forms of chemo can be targeted to specific areas of the body, like the abdomen, chest or central nervous ...

Chemotherapy is a common treatment for cancer that uses powerful drugs to attack fast-growing cancer cells in the body. The most common types of chemotherapy include oral medications or infusions ...

A chemo port makes it easier to get certain kinds of cancer treatments. Find out how it works, what it feels like, and how to take care of it.