Chemotherapy
To ensure that all cancerous cells have been removed from the body, a colon cancer patient might need to undergo chemotherapy in conjunction with a surgical procedure. Individuals with colon cancer can receive chemotherapy as a systemic or regional treatment. The term “systemic chemotherapy” refers to a treatment whereby chemotherapy drugs are delivered intravenously into a vein in order to reach all areas of the body. Regional chemotherapy is a treatment where chemotherapy drugs are directly injected into an artery that only transports blood to a part of the patient’s body where cancer is present.
The drugs that are used to treat cancer work by destroying or killing all cells during the division process. The side effects of chemotherapy are greater because chemotherapy drugs can’t distinguish between healthy cells dividing and malignant cells dividing. Neoadjuvant therapy is chemotherapy given before surgery in order to shrink the tumor and make it easier to remove. Adjuvant chemotherapy can be given after a tumor removal surgery in order to eliminate any cancerous cells that may have migrated or remained behind.
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