Chemotherapy

Authors: Sarah Gierahn Nielsen, med. student & Hanne Melgaard Nielsen, MD

Chemotherapy are drugs that inhibit cell division or mitosis and causes cell death especially in tissues with high proliferation rates, making it a crucial tool in cancer treatment.

Chemotherapy in the (neo-) adjuvant setting are composed of three different chemotherapy drugs, that generally are given in series/cycles of three weeks:

Epirubicin concomitant with Cyclophosphamide followed by a Taxan (either docetaxel or paclitaxel)

• In the neoadjuvant treatment, chemotherapy is both given to reduce tumor size and to reduce the risk of recurrence elsewhere in the body at a later onset
• In the adjuvant setting, it is given to reduce the patients risk of recurrence of both loco-regional and distant.