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What is chemotherapy?
Chemotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses (injectable or oral) drugs to destroy cancer cells. It works by stopping or slowing the growth of cancer cells that grow and divide rapidly but it can also affect healthy cells. Damage to healthy cells can cause side effects, but often side effects disappear when chemotherapy is over.
Depending on the type of cancer and its stage, chemotherapy can:
- Cure cancer – when chemotherapy destroys cancer cells to the point that the doctor can no longer detect them in the body and no longer regrow
- Control cancer – when chemotherapy prevents the spread of cancer, slows growth or destroys cancer cells that have spread to other parts of the body
- Relieve cancer-related symptoms (palliative care) – when chemotherapy reduces tumours that cause pain or pressure.
How is chemotherapy used?
Sometimes chemotherapy is the only treatment used in cancer care. But most often, chemotherapy is used in combination with surgery, radiotherapy or hormone therapy.
Chemotherapy can:
- Reduce a tumour before surgery or radiation therapy. This is called neoadjuvant chemotherapy
- Destroy cancer cells that may remain after surgery or radiation therapy. This is adjuvant chemotherapy.
- Help improve radiation therapy. This is chemotherapy in combination with radiotherapy.
- Destroy recurrent cancer cells (recurrent cancer) or stops the spread to other parts of the body (metastatic cancer)
Find your Amethyst Centre that specialises in Chemotherapy treatment
We operate centres across France and Romania offering chemotherapy treatment.
High-tech chemotherapy is at the core of all Amethyst Healthcare clinics and we strive to offer oncological patients access to the best treatments available.
Amethyst is set to continue its fast growth and reach 50 clinics and over 100 linear accelerators in the medium term.
Click on the locations in the map below:
All our treatments
Link to: Radiotherapy
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy (also called radiotherapy) is a cancer treatment that uses high doses of radiations to kill cancer cells and shrink tumours.
Link to: Brachytherapy
Brachytherapy
Brachytherapy is a type of internal radiation therapy. A small radioactive material called a source is introduced into your body, in or near the cancer
Link to: Support Therapies
Support therapies
Support therapies help make other treatments more effective or help patients feel better while having their treatment.
Link to: Gamma Knife
Gamma Knife
Gamma Knife Radiosurgery is a well-established method of treating selected brain tumours or lesions in the brain
