Chemotherapy

What is chemotherapy?

Chemotherapy is treatment with drugs to destroy cancer cells. It’s used for cancer that’s not localized enough to be treated with surgery or radiation therapy alone, when cancer has recurred or when there’s a strong chance that it could recur. Chemotherapy (also called chemo) can also help alleviate cancer-related symptoms.

At Advocate Health Care, most intravenous chemotherapy is provided at one of our convenient outpatient infusion clinics throughout the Chicago metro area. To maximize comfort, you’ll receive intravenous therapy in a relaxed, home-like setting, with individual TVs and plenty of room for family to sit in on each visit. And you'll be tended to by a compassionate staff specially trained to care for people receiving chemo.

Find an Advocate Cancer Institute near you.

What to expect during chemotherapy

Chemotherapy can involve one medication or a combination of several, depending on the type and stage of cancer, as well as your personal preferences. Whether the goal of using chemo is to cure a cancer, control it from spreading or relieve symptoms, our dedicated cancer care team will work closely with you to customize a treatment plan.

Schedules of chemotherapy delivery

• Chemo is usually given in cycles around periods of treatment and periods of rest to allow your body to recover.
• The schedule is largely determined by several factors, including the type of cancer, stage of cancer, selected drug course and your body’s reaction to the chemotherapy drugs.
• Chemo may be administered once a day, once a week or once a month.
• Chemo may be combined with surgery, radiation therapy or immunotherapy.

Ask your doctor about how long they expect chemotherapy to last for you and what schedule they recommend. It’s different for everyone.

Different chemotherapy delivery methods

• Intravenous (IV): Injected through a needle directly into a vein (most common method)
• Intra-arterial: Injected into an artery using a needle or a catheter (a soft, thin tube)
• Intraperitoneal (IP): Applied directly into the peritoneal cavity (abdominal area)
• Injections: Injected under the skin, into a muscle or a cancer lesion
• Topical: Delivered in a cream that you apply to your skin
• Oral: Ingested as pills, capsules or liquids

Chemoembolization is another delivery method that uses microcatheters to deliver chemo drugs directly into the blood vessel feeding a tumor. Synthetic material is also placed inside the blood vessels, in effect trapping the chemotherapy in the tumor to deliver powerful treatment.

How does chemotherapy work?

There are several different types of chemotherapy drugs (also called agents). They work by stopping or slowing the growth of fast-growing cells like cancer cells.

Chemo may be used to kill cancer cells, to make cancer less likely to return or to slow down its growth. Sometimes chemo is used to shrink tumors that cause pain or other problems.

When it’s used along with other treatments, chemo may be used to:

• Make a tumor smaller so it’s easier to remove
• Destroy any cancer cells that remain after radiation therapy or surgery
• Help other treatments work better
• Kill cancer cells that have spread to other parts of your body

Chemotherapy side effects

Chemotherapy may damage other fast-growing cells in your body besides the cancer cells such as hair, skin and the lining of your mouth or intestines. That kind of damage is what causes some side effects.

Nausea is one of the most common side effects of chemotherapy. Anti-nausea medications are available to help minimize this chemotherapy side effect.

Other side effects of chemotherapy include:

No matter what your chemotherapy side effects are, they have nothing to do with how well the chemotherapy medicine is working. Side effects are different for every person and may depend on your overall health, the kind of cancer, how advanced the cancer is, and the dose and type of chemo medicine you’re being given. Your care team will help you manage the side effects of chemotherapy as part of your treatment.

Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC)

Advocate Health Care is one of a few health care providers nationwide that offer HIPEC, an advanced chemotherapy option, to treat advanced abdominal cancers and peritoneal mesothelioma.

What is HIPEC treatment?

HIPEC is an alternative method of delivering chemotherapy during surgery. First, surgeons perform an extensive operation to remove all visible tumors (cytoreduction). After this step, the chemotherapy agent is heated and is circulated in the abdomen for an hour or more. The chemotherapy solution is then drained, and the surgeons complete the surgical procedure. These operations may take more than six hours to complete.

Circulating the chemo agent in the abdomen is more efficient than using an IV because the abdomen has fewer blood vessels than other parts of the body. Applying the chemo agent directly allows more widespread treatment of any remaining cancer cells that aren’t visible to the surgeon. It also allows for direct treatment of certain cancers that have spread throughout the abdomen. People who receive HIPEC treatment often have improved quality of life and longevity.

HIPEC: Leading-edge care

HIPEC emerged in the 1990s as a treatment for a rare type of cancer of the appendix. HIPEC is now being used for:

Chemotherapy side effects from HIPEC are similar to the side effects of chemotherapy delivered by other methods. Common complications may also include kidney failure, a leak from the intestines, inflammation of the pancreas or a decrease in bone marrow.