: the therapeutic use of chemical agents to treat disease
especially: the administration of one or more cytotoxic drugs to destroy or inhibit the growth and division of malignant cells in the treatment of cancer
Note: Chemotherapy may be used alone as a primary treatment or may be used before, after, or in conjunction with surgery or radiation.
Recent Examples on the WebColleagues knew someone in his condition would typically start chemotherapy, after taking six weeks or so to heal from surgery.BostonGlobe.com, 8 Sep. 2022 The day before Christmas Eve 2020, Leanor was checked into the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital for her first round of chemotherapy. Madison Smalstig, The Indianapolis Star, 6 Sep. 2022 But when fighting broke out, the lab handling her post-surgical test results closed down and her chemotherapy was delayed.Washington Post, 10 Mar. 2022 In 2015, Ricca’s mother was coming to the end of her chemotherapy and everything was looking good, but then Ricca received a call from his brother, telling him to come home, that his mom’s health had taken a turn. Joe Mario Pedersen, orlandosentinel.com, 20 Dec. 2021 Her doctor told her not to get the vaccine because of her chemotherapy. Zachary B. Wolf, CNN, 10 Sep. 2021 During the worst of his chemotherapy, Larsen shrunk his world down to its most basic elements: Just get through the night.Outside Online, 12 Aug. 2021 People had to get to their chemotherapy and dialysis appointments but lost their ways of transportation. Quinci Legardye, Harper's BAZAAR, 8 Aug. 2021 In 2019, Cagan, Posner, and colleagues published a report in Science Advances about a patient with metastasized colorectal cancer who had stopped responding to his chemotherapy. Michele Cohen Marill, Wired, 26 Feb. 2021 See More
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from German Chemotherapie, from chemo-chemo- + Therapietherapy
Note: The German word Chemotherapie is strongly associated with Paul ehrlich, though it is uncertain if he is its originator. Ehrlich probably first used the word in print in the article "Chemotherapeutische Trypanosomen-Studien," Berliner klinische Wochenschrift, 44. Jahrgang, No. 9 (March 4, 1907), pp. 233-36 (along with the Latin equivalent chemotherapia in the phrase chemotherapia specifica). Ehrlich employed the word earlier, however, in an address read at the dedication of the Georg-Speyer-Haus in Frankfurt am Main on September 6, 1906. What appears to be a summary of the address was published as "Die Aufgaben der Chemotherapie" ("The Tasks of Chemotherapy") in the feuilleton section of the Frankfurter Zeitung und Handelsblatt, 51. Jahrgang, No. 244, September 4, 1906, p. 1. The full text of the address ("Ansprache bei Einweihung des Georg-Speyer-Hauses") was published for the first time in The Collected Papers of Paul Ehrlich, edited by F. Himmelweit, vol. III Chemotherapy (London, 1960), pp. 42-52.