Someone asked:
How effective is cancer chemotherapy? Can chemotherapy cure cancer? When I have cancer, do I have to do chemotherapy?
What is chemotherapy? Chemotherapy is the abbreviation of chemotherapy, which is the use of chemical drug treatment or cytotoxic drug treatment, so it is also called cytotoxic drug treatment. In the body, it enters the blood circulation, and then along with the blood circulation, it reaches all parts of the blood supply in the whole body, including the place where the cancer is, of course, so as to kill the cancer cells.
How effective is chemotherapy? Can cancer be cured? The role of chemotherapy can be understood from the following aspects:
1. As a radical treatment
Chemotherapy is the main treatment for cancers that are particularly sensitive to certain chemotherapy, no matter in the early stage or in the advanced stage, and there is a considerable cure rate. Because chemotherapy drugs can reach the whole body and are a systemic treatment method, it can effectively treat and even cure cancers with distant metastasis, especially lymphoma and blood system cancers (such as lymphoma and leukemia, etc.), Small cell lung cancer and malignant germ cell tumors (such as testicular cancer) are all treated with chemotherapy as the main treatment.
——For this kind of cancer that is highly sensitive to chemotherapy and can be cured by chemotherapy, chemotherapy must be given. Don’t refuse chemotherapy because you heard that the so-called chemotherapy has side effects.
2. As an adjuvant therapy
The so-called adjuvant treatment means literally, it is not used as the main treatment method, but as an auxiliary method for other treatment methods, such as neoadjuvant chemotherapy or adjuvant chemotherapy before and after radical surgery or radical radiotherapy. Although it is adjuvant, it is also important. It can make surgery or radiotherapy better, can further reduce recurrence, and improve the cure rate. For cases that require adjuvant chemotherapy, it must be carried out in accordance with the standard.
——For early- and mid-stage cancers mainly based on surgery, postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy may have certain benefits in some cases, but the probability is relatively low, and it is not very certain. It can be considered as appropriate, but in some cases there is a risk of recurrence. Very high, chemotherapy can obviously benefit, chemotherapy is strongly recommended, and chemotherapy should not be rejected.
3. As palliative care
If the cancer has reached an advanced stage and cannot be operated, it can only control and prolong life to a limited extent. At this time, chemotherapy can play a role in controlling or delaying the growth of the tumor.
——For incurable advanced cancer, if it is sensitive to chemotherapy and there is no other alternative treatment (such as targeted therapy, immunotherapy), it is recommended to try chemotherapy as much as possible, which can effectively control the development of the disease and prolong the survival time.
What everyone can simply remember is that for early and mid-stage cancer, chemotherapy is a combined treatment method ( adjuvant chemotherapy ) with surgery or radiotherapy. Targeted drug therapy, immunotherapy, etc.), or even chemotherapy is the only treatment available to prolong survival ( palliative chemotherapy ). For some cancers, such as certain types of lymphomas, leukemias, malignant germ cell tumors, etc., chemotherapy is the main treatment, whether it is early or advanced, and sometimes chemotherapy alone can be cured ( radical chemotherapy ).
Radical chemotherapy and postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy that must be done should be completed as much as possible. For palliative chemotherapy, since it is not aimed at curing, it should be decided after comprehensive consideration of the benefits of chemotherapy, side effects of chemotherapy, the patient’s physical condition, and willingness to treat.
Of course, with the continuous development and marketing of new drugs, especially targeted drugs and immunotherapy drugs are showing more and more good curative effect, in many cases, multi-method comprehensive treatment is required, including chemotherapy, targeted and immunotherapy (sequential or simultaneous use as the case may be) ) to further improve the efficacy.