Systemic Treatment / Chemotherapy

The treatment of cancer with pharmaceuticals is generally known as “chemotherapy.” Chemotherapy is known as a “systemic therapy,” because it is delivered to the patient’s entire body, usually through the blood system, to reach cancer cells, which may have traveled to distant parts of the body from the original cancer site. Systemic treatments include: chemotherapy (many different combinations); hormonal therapy (drugs like tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors that block the production or use of estrogen); and numerous other tumor specific or immunologic drugs such as Herceptin and Avastin. There are hundreds of tumor-specific drugs in the research pipeline. These drugs promise much more efficient and specific treatment with far less side-effects.