Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy, in its most general sense, is the treatment of disease by chemicals especially by killing micro-organisms or cancerous cells. In popular usage, it refers to antineoplastic drugs used to treat cancer or the combination of these drugs into a cytotoxic standardized treatment regimen.

What is Chemotherapy?

Chemotherapy literally refers to the treatment of certain diseases using specific chemicals that are destructive to malignant cells or to the causative agent of a disease such as a bacteria or virus. Therefore, the treatment can be broadly divided into two categories - cancer chemotherapy and antimicrobial chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy Treatment Schemes

What is 'Chemo Brain'?

History of Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy Types

Chemotherapy Principles

Does Scalp Cooling Prevent Hair Loss During Chemotherapy?

How Chemotherapy Affects Daily Living

Latest Chemotherapy News and Research

Engineered probiotic bacteria boost immune attack against pancreatic cancer

Cancer immunotherapies have transformed treatment for many cancers, but pancreatic cancer remains especially difficult to treat. One major reason is that pancreatic tumors often create a "cold" tumor microenvironment, where the tumor prevents immune cells from mounting a strong attack.

24 Jul 2026

Two microscopic parasites cause widespread diarrheal illness across America

You've seen the alarming headlines about parasites causing "explosive diarrhea" across the U.S. Two microscopic parasites – cyclospora cayetanensis and cryptosporidium – can both cause prolonged gastrointestinal illness, including watery diarrhea, stomach cramps, and dehydration.

24 Jul 2026

Chemotherapy leaves early genomic fingerprints in childhood tumors

Nearly half of childhood tumors treated with common types of chemotherapy showed detectable DNA changes linked to treatment within 18 months, according to a new international study led by The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids).

23 Jul 2026

New mechanism behind chemotherapy resistance in ovarian cancer discovered

Scientists at The Wistar Institute have identified a new mechanism behind the chemotherapy resistance that makes ovarian cancer so lethal.

23 Jul 2026

UVA researchers develop a new experimental approach to target glioblastoma

University of Virginia Comprehensive Cancer Center scientists have developed a promising new experimental approach to targeting glioblastoma, the most common and deadliest brain cancer.

22 Jul 2026

City of Hope launches trial to map how tumors change during immunotherapy resistance

City of Hope®, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States with its National Medical Center ranked among the nation's top cancer centers by U.S. News & World Report, has opened an innovative Phase 2 clinical trial designed to map how tumors change as they begin to resist immunotherapy, treatment that improves the immune system's ability to fight disease.

21 Jul 2026

Oral drug avatrombopag reduces chemotherapy treatment delays, trial finds

In a phase 2 trial of patients with gastrointestinal cancers, avatrombopag helped 70% of those receiving chemotherapy to stay on treatment schedule, compared with 17% receiving placebo.

20 Jul 2026

Infectious disease expert explains who faces the highest risk from cyclosporiasis

People across the United States are taking a closer look at their lettuce and leafy greens this summer thanks to an outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a gastrointestinal illness that causes several symptoms, the most notable being severe, watery diarrhea.

19 Jul 2026

Multimodal surgery improves outcomes for rare corpus callosum glioma

Brain tumor surgeries are particularly challenging due to the difficult trade-off neurosurgeons often face—remove more tumor and risk neurological injury, or preserve function and leave more tumor behind.

17 Jul 2026

New approach enhances radiotherapy by disabling cancer's DNA repair machinery

Cancer treatments like radiation and chemotherapy work by doing one main thing: shredding the DNA of cancer cells so they can no longer multiply.

16 Jul 2026

LIG1 loss reveals new treatment strategy for aggressive breast cancer

Loss of one copy of the DNA Ligase I (LIG1) gene in triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC) with TP53 mutations confers resistance to chemotherapy, but researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions have identified a vulnerability in these cells and used it to their advantage.

16 Jul 2026

Weill Cornell Medicine receives DoD grant to target triple-negative breast cancer

Weill Cornell Medicine has received a $2.5 million, three-year grant from the Department of Defense (DoD) to develop therapies with fewer side effects for triple-negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat breast cancers.

16 Jul 2026

Self-assembling antibody drugs successfully target multiple cancer receptors

Modern anticancer medications that combine tumor-fighting drugs with proteins that specifically target cancer cells are a relatively new class of drug, often given to patients for whom standard chemotherapy has not worked.

15 Jul 2026

Stealth nanoparticles improve pancreatic cancer treatment with fewer side effects

Pancreatic cancer is considered one of the most lethal cancer because it is often diagnosed late and is difficult to treat.

14 Jul 2026

Study reports a counterintuitive new approach to treating mesothelioma

Mesothelioma is a rare but aggressive cancer, usually caused by exposure to asbestos. Inhaled asbestos fibers become lodged in the lungs, causing inflammation that can lead to tumor formation decades later. Worldwide, about 30,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year.

14 Jul 2026

EGFR inhibitors may overcome chemotherapy resistance in glioblastoma treatment

Treating glioblastoma with a class of drugs known as EGFR inhibitors made this cancer more sensitive to chemotherapy, suggests a study in preclinical models co-led by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

12 Jul 2026