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'?

Chemotherapy Principles

How Chemotherapy Affects Daily Living

History of Chemotherapy

Does Scalp Cooling Prevent Hair Loss During Chemotherapy?

Chemotherapy Types

Latest Chemotherapy News and Research

Multifunctional nanoplatform addresses three key barriers to effective TNBC immunotherapy

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is one of the most aggressive and treatment-resistant subtypes of breast cancer, accounting for 15-20% of all cases.

21 Aug 2026

Scientists uncover safer way to tame cancer cell senescence

Stopping tumor growth is only half the battle. Rather than kill tumor cells, many cancer therapies can only push them into cellular senescence, a state in which cells stop dividing but do not die. These "undead" cells will continue to release signals that reshape the tumor environment.

20 Aug 2026

Glioma microenvironment emerges as key target for future therapies

The prognosis for glioma patients remains extremely poor despite aggressive multimodal standard therapy: maximal safe resection, radiotherapy, and temozolomide chemotherapy, with median survival rarely exceeding 15 to 18 months.

20 Aug 2026

Colorectal tumors may damage nerves before chemotherapy

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found that, in preclinical models of colorectal cancer, tumors can start damaging peripheral nerves before chemotherapy begins.

19 Aug 2026

Alliance highlights the importance of clinical research on World Breast Cancer Research Day

This World Breast Cancer Research Day, the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology is highlighting the importance of clinical research in advancing better treatments and improving early detection to ultimately help prevent and cure breast cancer.

18 Aug 2026

Laser treatment may extend survival in glioblastoma patients

For patients facing a diagnosis of glioblastoma - one of the most aggressive and devastating forms of brain cancer - the standard path forward has long meant an invasive open-skull surgery and a daunting prognosis.

17 Aug 2026

Regional chemotherapy differences may impact survival among older breast cancer patients

The proportion of women with early breast cancer who receive chemotherapy varies significantly across different regions of Sweden.

13 Aug 2026

Preoperative combination therapy improves head and neck cancer outcomes

Patients with head and neck cancer who received chemotherapy in addition to immunotherapy before surgery had a significantly reduced tumor size at the time of operation than patients who received immunotherapy alone.

13 Aug 2026

'Locked' cancer therapeutic safely shrinks breast tumors in mice

Although there are many cancer treatments available today that effectively eliminate abnormal cells, these therapies may also damage healthy cells, leading to unwanted side effects.

13 Aug 2026

New ASTRO guidelines optimize radiation therapy for pancreatic cancer

An updated clinical guideline from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) provides evidence-based recommendations on the use of radiation therapy to treat adult patients with pancreatic cancer.

13 Aug 2026

Bacterial extracellular vesicles show potential for cancer diagnosis and treatment

Bacteria shed membrane-enclosed tiny particles filled with proteins, lipids, DNA, RNA and metabolites. These particles, commonly known as bacterial extracellular vesicles (BEVs), are now being explored as possible tools for cancer diagnosis and treatment.

13 Aug 2026

Cannabis compounds may weaken glioblastoma response to chemotherapy and radiation

Several cannabinoids reduced chemotherapy- and radiation-induced apoptosis in glioblastoma cell models, with effects linked to reduced apoptotic priming, increased pro-survival signaling, and G1 cell-cycle arrest. The findings raise concern that cannabinoid exposure could interfere with some cancer treatments, although the results are limited to laboratory models and require in vivo and clinical validation.

12 Aug 2026

HonorHealth begins trial of dendritic cell vaccine for advanced melanoma

Physicians at HonorHealth Research Institute have begun a clinical trial of a new, potentially more powerful, treatment for fighting advanced melanoma, using the immune system's dendritic cells to create a vaccine.

11 Aug 2026

Lab-grown mini tumors help scientists predict breast cancer treatment success

Researchers at UC San Francisco have developed a new method to predict how different types of breast cancer will respond to treatment, using patient data from the I-SPY2 breast cancer trial and rapid testing on lab-grown mini tumors.

11 Aug 2026

New gene signature predicts immunotherapy success for bone marrow cancers

A team led by researchers from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the HI-STEM Stem Cell Institute, and Medical Clinic V at Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) has characterized T cells in the bone marrow in cases of multiple myeloma and acute myeloid leukemia: A specific group of tumor-reactive T cells can recognize and, in principle, fight cancer cells, but is often not sufficiently activated.

10 Aug 2026

New drug delivers promising survival gains in pancreatic cancer

About 90% of people with pancreatic cancer have pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), which is driven by an activating mutation in the KRAS gene.

9 Aug 2026

Integrated nanomaterials offer new strategies for cancer immunotherapy

Immune checkpoint inhibitors, cancer vaccines and cellular therapies have reshaped oncology, yet most patients still do not achieve lasting benefit.

9 Aug 2026

Two-gene interaction reveals metastatic risk in breast cancer

Why do some breast cancer patients face a much higher risk of distant metastasis, while others with seemingly similar disease experience far better outcomes?

7 Aug 2026

Combination therapy overcomes ferroptosis resistance in β-catenin-mutant hepatocellular carcinoma

The aberrant activation of the mTOR pathway and its crosstalk with other signaling cascades represent key drivers of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression. mTOR-mediated ferroptosis suppression has been implicated in HCC resistance to chemotherapy.

7 Aug 2026

Autophagy modulation emerges as a strategy against cisplatin-resistant gastric cancer

Drug resistance remains one of the greatest obstacles to successful treatment of gastric cancer, limiting the long-term effectiveness of the widely used chemotherapy drug cisplatin.

6 Aug 2026