How Chemotherapy Works

How chemotherapy works to rid your body of cancer is a fascinating process. It all revolves around cells, those tiny little building blocks that make up each and every one of us.

If you haven't already read the "What Is Cancer?" and "What Causes Cancer?" sections of Cancer 101, then you might want to check out those first - those two sections give more details on how cells play a part in the whole cancer process.

How Chemotherapy Works
If you have cancer, the only way to get rid of it is to kill the cancer cells that have begun to take over your body. For many cancers, scientists have figured out that chemotherapy drugs are effective in killing cancer cells.

How chemotherapy works to kill cells when it enters your body (whether through an IV or in the form of a pill) is by damaging the nucleus, or control center, of the cell. When the nucleus is damaged, the cell can no longer divide, and it dies. The death of cancer cells results in the shrinking of the larger cancer tumor. If enough cancer cells are killed by the chemotherapy drugs, then the cancer is gone!

When cells - cancerous or healthy - are in the process of dividing, they are at a much higher risk of being damaged by chemotherapy drugs than cells that are not dividing. Since cancer cells tend to divide more frequently than healthy cells, the chemotherapy drugs tend to kill more cancer cells. All cells divide, however, which is why some healthy cells are also killed by the chemo drugs. You win some, you lose some, right? The trick is to kill all of the cancer cells and as few as possible of the healthy cells.


The Story Behind Side Effects
The reason why there are so many side effects from chemo is that the drugs don't just kill cancer cells - some healthy cells are also destroyed. The destruction of healthy cells causes those nasty side effects.

Specifically, the healthy cells that make up a person's hair, blood, stomach lining, and skin are frequently damaged by chemotherapy drugs because these types of cells also divide frequently - resulting in hair loss, fatigue (due to low blood counts), nausea, and skin issues (like dry patches). The good thing about these cells, though, is that other healthy cells can replace the ones that were killed after the chemotherapy treatments are over - so your hair grows back, your blood counts bounce back, you stop feeling nauseous, and your skin goes back to normal.


So that's how chemotherapy works to get rid of cancer!

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