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Understanding chemotherapy
How is chemo given
Life with chemo
Chemo options
How side effects may affect you
Coping with side effects
Talking to your doctor
Questions to ask your doctor
Getting the most from your visits
Taking care of yourself
Eating well
Support
Resources
Paying for chemo
Questions for your insurance company
Pop-up glossary terms
Adjuvant therapy
A treatment in which a drug is given in addition to the primary treatment to try to prevent the cancer from coming back
Alopecia
Loss of hair from sites all over the body
Anemia
Decreased number of red blood cells
Antiemetic
A drug that helps relieve nausea and vomiting
Aromatherapy
The use of plant essences for therapeutic purposes
Combination chemotherapy
Treatment using more than one chemotherapy drug during the course of therapy
Formulary status
Determines how much your insurance company will pay for a drug prescribed to you
Formulation
A specific way of making or preparing medication for administration to a patient
Guided imagery
Imagining scenes, pictures, or experiences in order to affect how you feel both physically and emotionally
Hypersensitivity reaction
Refers to an exaggerated allergic-type response to a substance
Intravenously
Administered into a vein
Massage therapy
While massage is generally used to help relax muscle tension, its far-reaching benefits are well documented and may help control anxiety, nausea, and fatigue
Meditation
An ancient practice in which your full mental attention is focused on a specific object, breathing patterns, or a repetition of words or phrases to quiet the mind (called a mantra)
Metastasized
Cancer that has spread to other parts of the body
Neoadjuvant therapy
A systemic treatment—one that affects the entire body—given to shrink tumors before surgery
Neutropenia
A decrease in the number of infection-fighting white blood cells in your circulation
Resistant
The term used to describe when cancer cells no longer respond to a particular medication
Solvents
Chemicals used to dissolve an active drug before it can be injected into the bloodstream
Systemic treatment
Treatment that affects the entire body
Targeted therapy
A type of medication that kills or blocks the growth of cancer cells by identifying and attacking a specific molecule or molecules that are necessary for cancer cell growth