1. What is Chemotherapy?
If you have just been prescribed chemotherapy, it means your doctor wants you to take medications to treat your cancer. Your doctor might explain how it can check the spread or growth of cancer. It may be given alone or either before or after surgery or radiation. It may be injected into your veins, muscle or tumor, delivered into your body cavity or taken orally as a pill. But how effective is chemotherapy really? It depends on how well the drug can kill the growing cancer cells.
2. Is Chemotherapy the Magic Bullet?
It depends on what your situation is. In order to be effective, you need to stick to your prescribed dose, whether daily, weekly or monthly. Some cancers respond well to chemotherapy. These include acute lymphocytic leukemia in children and Hodgkin's disease, for example. Chemotherapy can extend life in these cases. Even in cases of ovarian cancer, colon cancer, to a certain extent, and small cell lung cancer you might find chemotherapy adding years to life. At times, it may be combined with radiation and surgery for greater effectiveness, or as required. It may shrink tumors and lessen your pain. Your doctor might try a combo of two or more chemotherapeutic agents to either improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy or avoid the cancer cells from growing resistant to a single agent.
3. How Effective is Chemotherapy in Curing Cancer?
Again, it varies widely by the type of cancer and your situation. Taken early, and as prescribed, chemotherapy has been shown to have a cure rate of 70% to 90% in low-risk choriocarcinoma, early Burkitt's lymphoma, stage II-III testicular cancer, childhood sarcomas and lymphomas. The more advanced your disease, the more difficult it becomes to treat your cancer. And there is always a risk of recurrence. However, personalized chemotherapy based on your genetic profile can increase the effectiveness tremendously, for example, children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
4. How Effective is Chemotherapy in Increasing Survival?
It differs from cancer to cancer, depending on several factors. For instance, in advanced ovarian cancer multidrug chemotherapy using a platinum-based drug and a taxane-based drug delivered directly into the abdomen (intraperitoneal chemotherapy) can help women survive an average of five and a half years. Early detection, better diagnosis and supportive care may raise the chances of survival long term.
5. Can Chemotherapy be Effective Without the Side Effects?
It is true that chemotherapy has side effects as it affects healthy cells even as it gets rid of cancer cells. So experts are busy developing newer forms of chemotherapy that target only the cancer cells while leaving the normal cells alone. It should greatly reduce the side effects of therapy. Indeed, several targeted therapies are currently available with minimal side effects. Depending on your disease your doctor may have a wide choice. For example, drugs such as trastuzumab, imatinib and bevacizumab are available. Also, advances in genetics and research are increasing the prospects of chemotherapy with minimal adverse effects.
