Adjuvant chemotherapy

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Adjuvant chemotherapy

Adjuvant chemotherapy is a term used to describe the role of chemotherapy

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy, in its most general sense, refers to treatment of disease by chemicals that kill cells, specifically those of micro-organisms or cancer....
relative to other cancer treatments.

The terms adjuvant and neoadjuvant have special meanings in oncology

Oncology

Oncology is the branch of medicine that studies tumors . A medical professional who practices oncology is an oncologist. The term originates from the Greek onkos , meaning bulk, mass, or tumor and the suffix -logy, meaning "study of"....
. Adjuvant therapy refers to additional treatment, usually given after surgery where all detectable disease has been removed, but where there remains a statistical risk of relapse due to occult disease. If known disease is left behind following surgery, then further treatment is not technically "adjuvant".

For example, radiotherapy or chemotherapy

Chemotherapy

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Adjuvant chemotherapy is a term used to describe the role of chemotherapy

Chemotherapy

Oncology

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy, in its most general sense, refers to treatment of disease by chemicals that kill cells, specifically those of micro-organisms or cancer....
is commonly given as adjuvant treatment after surgery for a breast cancer. Oncologists use statistical evidence to assess the risk of disease relapse before deciding on the specific adjuvant therapy. The aim of adjuvant treatment is to improve disease-specific and overall survival. Because the treatment is essentially for a risk, rather than for provable disease, it is accepted that a proportion of patients who receive adjuvant therapy will already have been cured by their primary surgery.

Adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy are often given following surgery for many types of cancer, including colon cancer, lung cancer

Lung cancer

Lung cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell growth in tissue of the lung. This growth may lead to metastasis, which is the invasion of adjacent tissue and infiltration beyond the lungs....
, pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a cancer of the pancreas. Each year in the United States, about 37,680 individuals are diagnosed with this condition and 34,290 die from the disease each year....
, breast cancer

Breast cancer

Breast cancer is a cancer that starts in the Cell of the breast in women and men. Worldwide, breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer after lung cancer and the fifth most common cause of cancer death....
, prostate cancer

Prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is a disease in which cancer develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. It occurs when cell s of the prostate Mutation and begin to multiply out of control....
, and some gynaecological cancers.

Neoadjuvant therapy, in contrast to adjuvant therapy, is given before the main treatment. For example, chemotherapy that is given before removal of a breast is considered neoadjuvant chemotherapy

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy refers to drug treatment given to people with cancer prior to surgery or radiotherapy. The aim is to reduce the size of the cancer before receiving further treatment, thus making procedures easier and more likely to be successful....
. The most common reason for neoadjuvant therapy is to reduce the size of the tumor so as to facilitate more effective surgery.

Finally, concomitant or concurrent chemotherapy refers to administering medical treatments at the same time as other therapies, such as radiation.

Adjuvant chemotherapy

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