Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to kill or slow the growth of cancer cells. The aim is to destroy cancer cells while causing the least possible damage to healthy cells.
Learn more about:
Having chemotherapy
You will usually receive chemotherapy by injection into a vein (intravenously), although it is occasionally given as tablets. How often you have chemotherapy sessions will depend on the treatment plan.
Chemotherapy may be given for a range of reasons:
- in combination with radiation therapy (chemoradiation), to increase the effects of radiation
- before surgery or radiation therapy (neoadjuvant chemotherapy), to shrink a tumour
- after surgery (adjuvant chemotherapy), given along with radiation therapy, to help reduce the risk of the cancer returning
- as palliative treatment to help relieve symptoms.
Side effects of chemotherapy
Chemotherapy can affect the healthy cells in the body and cause side effects. Everyone reacts differently to chemotherapy, and effects will vary according to the drugs you are given. Some people may have few side effects, while others have many. Not all chemotherapy causes nausea. Your medical oncologist or nurse will discuss likely side effects, including how these can be prevented or controlled with medicine.
Common side effects can include:
- tiredness and fatigue
- nausea and/ or vomiting
- tingling or numbness in fingers and/or toes (peripheral neuropathy)
- changes in appetite and loss of taste
- diarrhoea or constipation
- hair loss
- low red blood cell count (anaemia)
- hearing loss
- ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
- lower levels of white blood cells, which may increase the risk of infection
- mouth sores.
Keep a record of the names and doses of your chemotherapy drugs handy. This will save time if you become ill and need to go to the hospital emergency department.
For more on this, see Chemotherapy.
→ READ MORE: Other drug therapies for head and neck cancers
Video: What is chemotherapy?
Watch this short video to learn more about chemotherapy.
Podcast: Making Treatment Decisions
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A/Prof Martin Batstone, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon and Director of the Maxillofacial Unit, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, QLD; Polly Baldwin, 13 11 20 Consultant, Cancer Council SA; Martin Boyle, Consumer; Dr Teresa Brown, Assistant Director Dietetics, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Honorary Associate Professor, University of Queensland, QLD; Dr Hayley Dixon, Head, Clinical Support Dentistry Department, WSLHD Oral Health Services, Public Health Dentistry Specialist, NSW; Head and Neck Cancer Care Nursing Team, Royal Melbourne Hospital, VIC; Rhys Hughes, Senior Speech Pathologist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, VIC; Dr Annette Lim, Medical Oncologist and Clinician Researcher – Head and Neck and Non-melanoma Skin Cancer, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, VIC; Dr Sweet Ping Ng, Radiation Oncologist, Austin Health, VIC; Deb Pickersgill, Senior Clinical Exercise Physiologist, Queensland Sports Medicine Centre, QLD; John Spurr, Consumer; Kate Woodhead, Physiotherapist, St Vincent’s Health, Melbourne, VIC; A/Prof Sue-Ching Yeoh, Oral Medicine Specialist, University of Sydney, Sydney Oral Medicine, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, NSW.
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