Chemo strategies can differ

DEAR DOCTOR K: My mother was diagnosed with cancer and will soon begin chemotherapy. I’d like to understand how chemotherapy is given, and how it fights cancer.

DEAR READER: Chemotherapy uses drugs that kill cancerous cells, but only injure healthy cells. To understand chemotherapy, you need to understand what cancer is and what is different about cancer cells.

Our body contains 13 trillion cells. They all started from one cell, a cell that kept dividing. One cell became two, two became four, and so on. But the cells kept dividing in a carefully controlled manner. After we are fully formed adults, some cells need to divide to replace dying old cells with younger ones.

In contrast, cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. Chemotherapy (anti-cancer) drugs kill cancer cells or prevent them from growing and dividing. The drugs reach almost all parts of the body. This helps to kill cancer cells that have spread from the original.

Chemotherapy is the core treatment for some cancers. For others, it is part of a larger strategy along with radiation and/or surgery. Chemotherapy often requires a combination of drugs. Cancer specialists (oncologists) design chemotherapy plans based on the cancer being treated and how far the cancer has spread. Chemo-therapy may be designed to:

• cure the cancer;

• prevent the cancer from recurring after surgery;

• prevent the cancer from spreading to other organs;

• decrease the size of a tumor to make surgery easier;

• shrink the size of incurable cancer to help relieve symptoms.

Chemotherapy drugs can be given in a hospital, clinic, doctor’s office or at home. For most people, a bag filled with the liquid drug is attached to a tube that is inserted into a vein. The drug slowly drips into the patient’s body. Sometimes the patient is able to swallow a pill instead, or get chemotherapy through an injection. People can receive chemotherapy daily, weekly or monthly.