What is adjuvant chemotherapy?

Adjuvant therapy is any type of therapy that follows the primary treatment. So, adjuvant chemotherapy takes place after you’ve had first-line treatment, such as surgery to remove a cancerous tumor.

The main goal of adjuvant chemotherapy is to lower the chance that the cancer will return, and to improve the outcome of first-line treatment.

Sometimes cancer cells can be left behind after surgery. It’s also possible that cancer cells may be circulating in your bloodstream or lymphatic system.

The traveling cancer cells don’t show up on imaging tests. Without treatment, they can find their way to distant organs to form new tumors.

Chemotherapy is a systemic treatment. Chemo drugs attack rapidly dividing cells, such as cancer cells, throughout your body.

It’s also important to know that chemo drugs can destroy healthy cells too because traditional chemotherapy does not specifically only target cancer cells.

But the chemotherapy treatment may help lower the risk that the cancer cells will spread to distant organs. Your doctor will work with you to monitor your treatment experience.

When is adjuvant chemotherapy typically recommended?

Your doctor may recommend adjuvant chemotherapy if:

you have a particular type of cancer or carry certain biomarkers that are known to respond well to chemotherapy drugs

you carry specific genetic mutations that carry a high risk of cancer recurrence

during surgery, cancer cells were found in your lymph nodes

your cancer is not positive for hormone receptors, making hormone therapy ineffective

you have a later stage cancer

Adjuvant therapies are frequently used to treat the following cancers: