Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy simply means ‘drug treatment’ and aims to cure cancer or relieve any symptoms that cancer can cause.

How does Chemotherapy work?

What is Chemotherapy?

It can be used alone, with surgery, with radiotherapy, or as a mixture with both surgery and radiotherapy. As all cancer treatments are designed around individual patients, your consultant will talk you through your chemotherapy treatment process and answer any questions that you might have.

How does chemotherapy work?

Chemotherapy either kills cancer cells or stops their ability to multiply. In the same way that different bacteria are sensitive to different antibiotics, different cancers are sensitive to different types of chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy reaches the cancer cells through the blood stream. Following each dose of chemotherapy a proportion of the cells will be destroyed. Usually, patients are given a number of cycles of chemotherapy in order to destroy as many of the cancer cells as possible, but the maximum benefit from the treatment is normally reached after 3-6 months.

As the number of cancer cells reduces, the natural defence mechanisms of your body may also play their part in destroying cancer cells.

Side effects

Cancer chemotherapy produces different reactions in different people. Reactions may also vary from treatment to treatment. Since most side effects are temporary, they will gradually disappear when your treatment is complete.

For more information about your chemotherapy treatment, speak to your nurse.

We work together to combine the highest levels of consultant-led care and patient choice with the most advanced knowledge and understanding of the disease and its forms.

Will this treatment hurt?

A. No, administering this treatment won’t cause any pain. However, side-effects from the treatment may cause some discomfort

How long will this treatment take?

A. This treatment usually only takes a few minutes and is repeated over a set number of sessions based on your condition

What side effect can I expect

A. Side effects are unique to each patient; however, they go away once the treatment is complete. Common side effects can include skin reactions and hair loss at the site of treatment, nutritional problems, fatigue and a reduction in white blood cells

Wil I be radioactive after the treatment?

A. No once treatment is complete you won’t be radioactive as the tradition is administered externally. Once completely it’s perfectly safe for you to be around other people