Patients need time between chemo cycles

CHEMOTHERAPY can be given intravenously, usually in hospital, or taken as tablets at home with regular check-ups.

The drugs enter the patient’s bloodstream and therefore reach all parts of the body.

They are described as cytotoxic – meaning toxic to cells.

It stops the cancer growing and can be used if it has spread from its initial site or there is a danger it will.

How long the patient requires the medication depends on the stage and type of the disease.

Bob Phillips, Professor of Paediatric Oncology at the University of York, said the treatment was given “traditionally between four and six ‘cycles’ (blocks) of chemo, each cycle lasting 21 days and consisting of a day or few days of chemo.”

He said there would then be “time for the body to recover from it, while the chemo keeps damaging the cancer cell”. Side-effects occur because healthy cells are damaged alongside any cancer cells.

Treatment can make people feel very tired and nauseous, and cause them to vomit and lose their hair.

Chemo patients are also at an increased risk of getting infections, a sore mouth, dry, sore or itchy skin as well as bowel issues.

The treatment can be used before or after surgery, or combined with other treatments – such as radiotherapy – to make them more effective. X-rays, scans, blood tests and physical examinations may be used to monitor progress.

More than 375,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year in the UK and there are more than 167,000 deaths from the disease.

Half of patients survive for a decade or more after diagnosis. Breast cancer is the most common type of the disease here, followed by prostate, lung and bowel.