How Often and How Long Will I Receive Chemotherapy?

You may receive chemotherapy every day, every week or every month. Treatment plans are different for each cancer and may even vary from patient to patient with the same cancer. How long you receive chemotherapy depends on the type of cancer you have, the goal of the treatment, the medications you are receiving and how you respond to treatment.

Treatment is usually given in chemotherapy cycles or repeated doses. This means you will receive medications followed by a period of rest. Rest periods give your body time to replace damaged cells and to regain strength.

A single dose of chemotherapy will kill only a certain percentage of cancer cells. With each repeated dose, or cycle, more and more cancer cells can be destroyed. Depending on the type of cancer, treatments can be repeated for three to six months or longer in some cases.

Chemotherapy is scheduled as often as possible to:

• minimize tumour growth between cycles
• prevent the development of resistance to chemotherapy medication
• get the best outcome

It is important to stick to your scheduled course of treatment so that the medications can do their job. Changes or delays could potentially affect the results of your treatment. If you miss a treatment or forget to take your medications, contact your doctor. Your doctor may have to delay treatment if you find the side effects become troublesome or if your blood counts are too low.