Preventive chemotherapy, or adjuvant chemotherapy, is administered after your primary cancer treatment. It’s used to destroy remaining cancer cells in your body that might be undetectable.

Preventive chemotherapy is administered after your primary treatment to destroy remaining cancer cells and lower the chances of your cancer returning. Even if the results of your tests suggest that you don’t have any cancer cells left, they might still be in your body but are undetectable.

Cancer cells may still be circulating in your bloodstream or lymph system. From here, they can potentially settle in distant organs and cause new cancer growth. When cancer spreads to distant parts of your body it’s called metastatic cancer. Metastatic cancer is generally much harder to treat than cancer limited to one organ or region.

When determining whether you may benefit from preventive chemotherapy, your cancer team will consider the potential benefits of chemotherapy compared with the risk of side effects.

Preventive chemotherapy is a standard treatment for many types of cancer, such as some types of breast or lung cancers.

Adjuvant and neoadjuvant chemotherapy

Preventive chemotherapy is another name for adjuvant therapy. Some people also receive chemotherapy before their primary treatment. When this happens, it’s referred to as neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Doctors consider many factors when determining whether you may benefit from preventive chemotherapy.

This can include:

  • the type and stage of your cancer
  • the likelihood that your cancer will return
  • whether you have certain biomarkers that suggest your cancer will respond well to chemotherapy
  • whether you have specific gene mutations that suggest you have a high risk of cancer reoccurrence
  • whether cancer cells were found in your lymph nodes or along the edges of tissue removed during surgery

Undergoing chemotherapy can be stressful on both your physical and mental health. Your cancer team is only likely to recommend preventive chemotherapy if previous research suggests you may benefit from it. In some cases, they may recommend it as part of a clinical trial if researchers are still examining the potential benefit for your overall survival.

Types of cancer treated with adjuvant chemotherapy

Adjuvant chemotherapy is a standard treatment for treating some types of cancer. It’s often only a standard treatment for cancers in advanced stages.

Some types of cancer that are frequently treated with adjuvant chemotherapy include:

How does chemotherapy work?

Chemotherapy involves taking medications that contain chemicals that kill cancer cells or keep them from dividing. Most chemotherapy medications are administered directly into your bloodstream through an intravenous (IV) line. But some are administered orally or through topical creams.

Occasionally, chemotherapy may also be administered intraperitoneally, meaning the drugs are injected directly into the cavity that contains organs such as your intestines and stomach.

Many different chemotherapy medications have been developed to treat cancer. They’re often mixed in certain combinations called regimens to target cancer cells in multiple ways.

Despite chemotherapy’s potential effectiveness, chemicals in these medications can also incidentally damage healthy cells, especially cells that replicate quickly.

Types of cells particularly vulnerable to chemotherapy include:

  • hair follicle cells
  • gastrointestinal cells
  • blood cells
  • skin cells

Damage to these cells can cause many of the side effects of chemotherapy, which can include:

Preventive chemotherapy may help improve your outlook after cancer, but it can sometimes lead to extra side effects without much benefit. Before undergoing treatment, it’s best to discuss the potential pros and cons with your healthcare team.

Some questions you might want to ask your team include:

  • How likely is preventive chemotherapy to improve my outlook?
  • What are the potential risks of preventive chemotherapy?
  • How long do I need to undergo preventive chemotherapy?
  • What are my chances of survival if I don’t undergo preventive chemotherapy?
  • What has previous research found about the benefits of preventive chemotherapy for my cancer?
  • What type of chemotherapy will I receive?
  • Is preventive chemotherapy a standard treatment or is it a clinical trial?

Your cancer team may recommend waiting and seeing if your cancer returns without administering chemotherapy. You might also receive other types of adjuvant therapy, such as:

Do you lose your hair with preventive chemotherapy?

Some preventive chemotherapy may cause hair loss. But this isn’t the case with all chemotherapy drugs. Consider speaking with your healthcare team about your options.

What cancers use preventive chemo?

Preventive chemotherapy is typically used to treat cancers such as breast and lung cancers.

Is preventive chemotherapy safe?

Preventive chemotherapy is considered a safe and quality-assured treatment by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Preventive chemotherapy is administered after your primary cancer treatment to remove cancer cells that might still be in your body but aren’t detectable. It’s used to treat many different types of cancer.

When determining whether you may benefit from preventive chemotherapy, your cancer team will consider many factors, such as how advanced your cancer is and your overall health. It’s best to discuss the potential pros and cons of preventive chemotherapy with your healthcare team before starting treatment.