The treatment of cancer with anticancer drugs. Since drugs are chemicals, it is called “chemical therapy,” which has simply been shortened to chemotherapy and often even simply to chemo.

There are lots of different types of cancer, and there are lots of different chemotherapies. Most are relatively to even very unpleasant. The reason is this: cancer is essentially a disease in which abnormal cells are not destroyed by the body and are therefore free to multiply. This uncontrolled multiplication must be stopped, otherwise the body will eventually be completely invaded by them, resulting in steadily increasing suffering and eventual death.

The trouble with this is that the multiplication of other normal and rapidly multiplying cells will also be halted. A few examples:

• Hair follicles: Since chemotherapy typically stops their growth, patients often lose their hair during therapy. It grows back later on, but it is not a pleasant effect.
• Blood cells: This can affect patients’ ability to form blood clots, rendering them vulnerable to injury.
• Cells of the digestive tract and the mouth: This leads to nausea, loss of appetite, mouth sores…
• Sex cells: Can lead to infertility

These effects are unpleasant, and while most of them gradually diminish once the therapy has been completed, not all of them always do. Other forms of therapy are then required to deal with these problems.