Is Chemotherapy an Effective Treatment?
August 05, 2013 
1. CHEMOTHERAPY AN EFFECTIVE TREATMENT?
Have you been just prescribed chemotherapy? This means that your doctor needs you to start taking medications for treating your cancer. Your doctor will explain how chemotherapy keeps a check on the spread of cancer. It may be prearranged alone or before , after surgery .It can be injected in the veins, tumer or muscle, delivered in the body cavity or can be taken orally as pill. The question is chemotherapy really effective? This depends on how the medications can kill the cancer growing cells.
2. CHEMOTHERAPY A MAGIC BULLET?
This depends on your situation. For effective results one you must stick to the prescribed dose, be it daily, weekly or monthly. Number of cancers responds well to chemotherapy. It includes lymphocytic leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease etc. Chemotherapy can increase the life expectancy in such cases. In cases such as ovarion cancer to an extent, acute cell lung cancer chemotherapy adds a few years of life. Chemotherapy can be combined with surgery or radiation for increased effectiveness. Chemotherapy shrinks or lessen the pain.the doctor may try various combinations of chemotherapeutic agents to develop greater efficiency of chemotherapy or to avoid the affected cells to turn resistant to a single agent.
3. HOW EFFICIENT IS CHEMOTHERAPY IN FIGHTING CANCER?
Again .this varies on the situation and the nature of cancer.if prescribed early, chemotherapy has shown success rate of uotp 90% in acute choriocarcinoma, Burkett’s lymphoma if diagnosed early, ll-lll stage testicular cancer, Lymphoma and sarcomas in childhood. More advanced is the disease lesser chances to cure or treat cancer. There is constant risk of reappearance of cancer. However bespoke chemotherapy which is based on genetic profile can add to the effectiveness many fold, for example low-risk lymphoblastic leukemia in childrens.
4.WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF SURVIVAL AFTER OR WITH CHEMOTHERAPY?
It is different to one cancer to another, depending upon various factors. For example in advanced stages of ovarian cancer multidrug chemo with a platinum and taxane based medicine delivered directly in the abdomen helps women survive five years. Better diagnosis and early detection and effective care increase the chance of survival for a longer period.
5. IS CHEMOTHERAPY EFFECTIVE WITHOUT THE SIDE EFFECT?
Chemotherapy has negative effects, it causes negative effects on healthy cells as it gets rid the cancer cells. So the experts are searching newer ways of chemotherapy that only targets the cancer cells leaving normal cells unaffected. Advances in genetics are increasing the ways of new chemotherapy with minimum side effects.
Cancer 
My mom suffering from 2nd stage of cancer age 71 years tumor removed at TATA memorial hosp Mumbai. 3 cm and extended to 1 lymph node underarm. Its left side. Doctors has been Suggested for weekly Chemo and later Radiation.
She wanted to go for specific chemotherapy as she is too scared.