Translations:AY Honors/Cancer Awareness/Answer Key/28/en

Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy, or chemo, is a treatment with strong drugs that are most often given by mouth or by injection. In most cases, more than one chemo drug is used. Unlike radiation therapy or surgery, chemo drugs can treat cancers that have spread throughout the body because they travel through the bloodstream. It’s given for different reasons, depending on the type of cancer and its stage. Chemo is given in cycles, each followed by a rest period. A cycle might be one dose followed by days or weeks without treatment. The rest period gives the body’s normal cells time to recover. Chemo cycles are set up in other ways, too. Some drugs work best when they’re given a few days in a row, or every other day, followed by a time of rest.