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chemotherapy

UK/ˌkiːməʊˈθɛɹəpi/US/ˌkiːməʊˈθɛɹəpi/
nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,791 of 15,258leans written

Chemotherapy is treatment of cancer with powerful drugs. Start chemotherapy, six rounds of chemotherapy, after the chemotherapy.

The drugs attack fast-dividing cells, which is why they work and also why hair falls out and the gut suffers. It is given in cycles with gaps for recovery, and most patients shorten the word to chemo.

Definitions of chemotherapy

  1. 1nounchemotherapyTreatment of cancer with powerful drugs.B2+

    “After the operation, she needed six months of chemotherapy.”

chemotherapy is a treatment.

Where it comes from

  1. New Latin

    therapīa

  2. English

    therapy

  3. English, today

    chemotherapy

Built from

  • θεραπεύω · Ancient Greek — to serve, treat medically

From chemo- + therapy. therapy Borrowed from New Latin therapīa. From New Latin therapīa, from Ancient Greek θεραπεία (“service, medical treatment”), from θεραπεύω (“to serve, treat medically”) -ία.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

chemotherapy in the wild

  • To a large extent, chemotherapy can be thought of as a way to damage or stress cells, which may then lead to cell death if apoptosis is initiated.

    Chemotherapy

  • The risk is especially high in cytotoxic chemotherapy for leukemia.

    Bone marrow suppression

  • Unlike chemotherapy the effects may not be due to direct destruction of stem cells but the results may be equally serious.

    Bone marrow suppression

  • Targeted therapies may also be described as "chemotherapy" or "non-cytotoxic chemotherapy", as "chemotherapy" strictly means only "treatment by chemicals".

    Targeted therapy

  • But in typical medical and general usage "chemotherapy" is now mostly used specifically for "traditional" cytotoxic chemotherapy.

    Targeted therapy

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the therapīa family

therapy

chemotherapy — used about once every 2,903 pages · #7,791 · point at the bar for the others

  • physiotherapist