Chemotherapy means treating the tumor with medication. Along with surgery and radiotherapy (radiation therapy), it is a very important part of tumor therapy. With chemotherapy, tumor cells are killed or tumor growth stopped.
Sometimes, single, sometimes several drugs are administered in various ways. The branch of science that deals with chemotherapy are MEDICAL ONCOLOGY or MEDICAL ONCOLOGY, the physician working in this field is called MEDICAL ONCOLOGY or MEDICAL ONCOLOGY. Medical oncology is a separate specialty; the medical oncologist is an internal medicine specialist specializing in tumor therapy.
Tumor treatment is a team job and must be applied in centers where all members of this team are located. This team should include a specialist surgeon related to tumor surgery, a radiation oncologist related to radiotherapy, a medical oncologist on chemotherapy and patient care (supportive therapy).
What Is The Purpose In Chemotherapy?
Depending on the type of tumor and the characteristics of the patient, chemotherapy can be applied for different reasons.
- To completely destroy the tumor and heal the patient,
- To prevent the spread of the tumor,
- To stop or slow down the growth of the tumor,
- Chemotherapy is applied to eliminate the symptoms caused by the tumor.
In others, chemotherapy is applied consecutively or simultaneously with other treatments (surgery and beam therapy). For example, chemotherapy can be performed to shrink the tumor before surgery or to prevent its spread after surgery. The same applications can be done before and after radiation therapy, and chemotherapy can be applied simultaneously with radiation therapy.
Chemotherapy Drugs
Various drugs are used in chemotherapy. Some of them are used to reduce or eliminate tumor development, chemotherapeutic drugs (cytotoxic) aimed at destroying tumor cells, some preventing tumor growth, proliferation (cytostatic), hormones and immune side effects.
In others, chemotherapy is applied consecutively or simultaneously with other treatments (surgery and beam therapy). For example, chemotherapy can be performed to shrink the tumor before surgery or to prevent its spread after surgery. The same applications can be done before and after radiation therapy, and chemotherapy can be applied simultaneously with radiation therapy.
How to choose drugs to be given?
The choice of medication is made by the medical oncologist based on the type of tumor, prevalence, age of the patient, general condition and other existing diseases (heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and kidney disease). The doses and frequency of administration of the selected drugs are also decided by the medical oncologist taking many different factors into consideration.