You might wonder whether experiencing side effects is a sign that the chemotherapy is working. However, side effects usually do not indicate how successful the chemotherapy is going to be.
Your doctor may do physical examinations and other tests to see if the cancer has shrunk or disappeared after chemotherapy. This is called the treatment response and it helps your doctor decide whether to continue or change the chemotherapy plan.
If tests show that the cancer has shrunk and is unable to be detected, this may be called remission or complete response, which means there is no evidence of active cancer. Depending on the guidelines for the type of cancer you have, this may mean chemotherapy can stop or it may continue for a period of time.
Once you’ve completed the course of chemotherapy, your doctor will monitor you for several months or years. This is because cancer can sometimes come back in the same place or grow in another part of the body.
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Dr Prunella Blinman, Medical Oncologist, Concord Cancer Centre, Concord Repatriation General Hospital, and Clinical Senior Lecturer, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, NSW; Gillian Blanchard, Oncology Nurse Practitioner, Calvary Mater Newcastle, and Conjoint Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, The University of Newcastle, NSW; Julie Bolton, Consumer; Keely Gordon-King, Psychologist, Cancer Council Queensland, QLD; John Jameson, Consumer; Dr Zarnie Lwin, Medical Oncologist, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, and Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, QLD; Caitriona Nienaber, 13 11 20 Consultant, Cancer Council WA; Dr Felicia Roncolato, Medical Oncology Staff Specialist, Macarthur Cancer Therapy Centre, NSW. We also thank the health professionals, consumers and editorial teams who have worked on previous editions of this title.
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