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.

What is 'Chemo Brain'?

Chemotherapy Types

How Chemotherapy Affects Daily Living

Does Scalp Cooling Prevent Hair Loss During Chemotherapy?

Chemotherapy Principles

History of Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy Treatment Schemes

Latest Chemotherapy News and Research

Study reveals a therapeutic vulnerability in aggressive subtype of triple-negative breast cancer

A new study published today in Science Translational Medicine by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center details a therapeutic vulnerability in patients with an aggressive subtype of triple-negative breast cancer.

26 Dec 2025

Artificial intelligence improves risk stratification in oropharyngeal cancer

A team led by investigators at Mass General Brigham and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has developed and validated an artificial intelligence (AI)–based noninvasive tool that can predict the likelihood that a patient's oropharyngeal cancer-a type of head and neck cancer that develops in the throat-will spread, thereby signaling which patients should receive aggressive treatment.

23 Dec 2025

CT-based quantification of tumor fibrosis guides chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer

On October 3, 2025, a multicenter team from Shenzhen University, Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Zhujiang Hospital of Southern Medical University, Wuxi People's Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, among others jointly reported a novel noninvasive method for quantifying tumor fibrosis based on preoperative enhanced CT.

23 Dec 2025

Robots and click chemistry open a new frontier in antibiotic discovery

Researchers have used a cutting-edge robotic system capable of synthesizing hundreds of metal complexes to develop a possible antibiotic candidate - offering fresh hope in the global fight against drug-resistant infections.

23 Dec 2025

THC products provide small improvements in pain but carry side effects

A new systematic evidence review finds that cannabis products that carry relatively high levels of the psychoactive compound tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC, may provide short-term improvements in pain and function.

22 Dec 2025

Remodeling the tumor microenvironment to unlock CAR-T cell potential

Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy has revolutionized hematologic cancer treatment, but its efficacy in solid tumors remains limited by poor infiltration into the complex tumor microenvironment (TME).

22 Dec 2025

New grant supports research into drug-induced brain toxicity

Important FDA-approved drugs to treat HIV and cancer can save lives, but they come with their own risks. Some drugs used clinically are known to cause neurological side effects in up to half of patients, ranging from confusion and memory problems to permanent nerve damage.

19 Dec 2025

Study links low physical activity to higher lymphedema risk after cancer treatment

Lymphedema after head and neck cancer is considerably more common than previously assumed and can persist long after cancer treatment has finished.

17 Dec 2025

Strong heart health lowers long-term death risk in cancer survivors

Higher Life’s Simple 7 cardiovascular health scores were associated with lower long-term all-cause and cancer mortality in cancer survivors from a large Italian cohort. Inflammation, resting heart rate, and vitamin D statistically explained a substantial share of these associations, supporting shared cardiometabolic pathways across cancer and cardiovascular disease.

17 Dec 2025

New diagnostic chip enables rapid monitoring of brain cancer treatment

New diagnostic chip pulls packets released from tumor cells out of blood, showing whether cancer cells died during chemotherapy infusion.

16 Dec 2025

Targeted mRNA vaccines train the immune system to destroy cancer cells

No matter where cancer cells grow in the human body, they are a threat to our health and our lives. But instead of treating them with chemotherapy or radiation - which have undesirable side effects - what if we could train our own immune systems to kill the rogue cells?

16 Dec 2025

Frog-derived bacteria offer dual-action anticancer effects and high safety

A research team of Prof. Eijiro Miyako at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) has discovered that the bacterium Ewingella americana, isolated from the intestines of Japanese tree frogs (Dryophytes japonicus), possesses remarkably potent anticancer activity. This groundbreaking research has been published in the international journal Gut Microbes.

16 Dec 2025

Bifunctional biomaterials for postoperative management of osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma is the most prevalent primary malignant bone tumor in children and adolescents. The current standard treatment involves a combination of chemotherapy and radical surgical resection.

16 Dec 2025

Chemotherapy may reduce HIV-infected T cells

Advancements in HIV/AIDS research, drug development and clinical practice since the 1980s have made it possible for people living with HIV to lead long, productive lives and keep the virus in check at undetectable levels and nontransmissible as long as therapy is maintained.

15 Dec 2025