Welcome to The Cancer Centre Eastern Caribbean (TCCEC)

Opening Hours : Monday to Friday - 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
  Contact : (268) 460-6000

Chemotherapy

What is Chemotherapy?

Sometimes referred to simply as “chemo”, chemotherapy is used most often to describe drugs that kill cancer cells directly. These are sometimes referred to as “anti-cancer” drugs or “antineoplastics.” Other chemo drugs such as biologic response modifiers, hormone therapy, and monoclonal antibodies, which work in different ways to treat cancer, are included in this web-site. Today’s therapy uses more than 100 drugs to treat cancer. There are even more chemo drugs still under development and investigation.

 

What is Chemotherapy Used For?

Since cancer is a word used to describe many different diseases, there is no one type of treatment that is used universally. Chemotherapy is used for a variety of purposes:

  1. To cure a specific cancer;
  2. To control tumor growth when cure is not possible;
  3. To shrink tumors before surgery or radiation therapy;
  4. To relieve symptoms (such as pain); and
  5. To destroy microscopic cancer cells that may be present after the known tumor is removed by surgery (called adjuvant therapy). Adjuvant therapy is given to prevent a possible cancer reoccurrence.