You may have chemotherapy
To shrink a cancer before surgery or radiotherapy (neoadjuvant treatment)
To try to stop cancer coming back after surgery or radiotherapy (adjuvant treatment)
As a treatment on its own in cancers that are very sensitive to chemotherapy
To treat cancer that has spread from where it first started
Sometimes people have chemotherapy at the same time as radiotherapy. This is called chemoradiation. It can help the radiotherapy to work better, but can also increase side effects.
Types of chemotherapy
Doctors use chemotherapy because it circulates throughout the body in the bloodstream. So chemotherapy can treat cancer cells wherever they are. This is called systemic treatment. Surgery and radiotherapy are local treatments.
The chemotherapy drugs you have are specific to where in your body the cancer started – the type of cancer you have. Different chemotherapy drugs work on different types of cancer