Chemotherapy can help shrink the cancer or slow its growth, which can relieve some patients’ symptoms and help them live longer.
To help treat stomach cancer, chemotherapy may be used by injection into a vein or by mouth (with pills). These drugs enter the bloodstream and reach all parts of the body, making this treatment useful against cancer that has spread to the affected organ.
To help treat stomach cancer, chemotherapy can be used in different ways:
Neoadjuvant treatment: can reduce the size of the tumor, and possibly facilitate surgery.
Adjuvant treatment: The goal of adjuvant chemotherapy is to kill any cancer cells that are left behind and cannot be seen because they are too small after surgery.
Chemotherapy is given with radiation therapy after surgery for stomach cancer.
Chemoradiation, this treatment is especially useful for cancers that could not be completely removed by surgery.
After administering these treatments to the patient, they suffer short-term negative consequences because they affect the blood cells, mucous membranes, hair follicles, those of the nails and those of the digestive system.
