The difference between chemotherapy and the other options available to address this pathology, radiotherapy and surgery-basically-is that it can be used systemically. That is, by its very nature, these drugs are not limited to act in a particular area but also reaching various parts of the body, where they have spread the cancerous cells.
Depending on the type and stage of cancer, chemotherapy can be used for different purposes:
* To cure cancer, a goal that is achieved when the patient no longer presents diseased cells in your body, the tumor disappeared and the patient remains free of disease for many years.
* To control the cancer, ie, to prevent further spread of the disease. In this case the drugs eliminate diseased cells that have spread to other organs.
* Palliative to alleviate disease symptoms, mainly pain, which lowers the quality of life for patients.
In many cases, drug treatment is complemented with the use of radiation or even used as an adjunct to surgery. In the case of the so-called neo-adjuvant chemotherapy, the drugs are tasked to belittle the tumor before it is removed on the contrary, when the therapy is used after surgery to kill any cancer cells remaining in the body is spoken of adjuvant chemotherapy.