Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the use of drugs or other agents to kill cancer cells.  Unlike surgery and radiation therapy, which are targeted to specific areas in the body, chemotherapy is systemic, meaning it can reach cancer cells that have broken away from the primary site and spread to other places in the body.  In breast cancer, chemotherapy is used to treat early-stage disease in order to reduce the risk of recurrence, but also used for more advanced disease that has spread or metastasized to other places in the body.  Chemotherapy is a critical part of breast cancer treatment and is used for most stages of breast cancer, although not every breast cancer patient receives chemotherapy.  Many drugs are available to treat breast cancer, and they are often used in combination. 

The decision as to whether you need chemotherapy – and what drugs you will receive – depends on many factors.  These include the size, grade, stage and molecular characteristics of your tumor; your age and menopausal status; the hormone status of your tumor; and whether you are HER2 positive or negative. 

Chemotherapy is administered by a medical oncologist, usually on an outpatient basis, either in the doctor's office or in the outpatient clinic.  Some chemotherapy drugs are delivered intravenously and others are taken orally.  Some have significant side effects and others few or none.  Regardless of what kind of chemotherapy you get, both the idea of going through "chemo" and its reality can be difficult and scary.  This section provides a guide to understanding how chemotherapy works and what to expect.  Remember, treatment and side effects are individual.

A tip: Pharmaceutical companies maintain websites on almost every drug, many of which include patient information sections.  You can find specific information on your chemotherapy drugs by searching for them online.

In this section we'll look at: