Planning your chemotherapy treatment

Your treatment will depend on a number of factors including: 

• the type of cancer you have
• where the cancer is in the body
• how far it has spread (if at all)
• your general health.

How often you have your treatment and how long the whole course of treatment takes will depend on: 

• the type of cancer you have
• the particular chemotherapy drugs you are having
• how well the cancer responds to the drugs
• any side effects the drugs may cause and how you are coping with them.

Before starting chemotherapy, you’ll have your height and weight checked. This is used to work out the right dose of chemotherapy for you.

Each treatment is generally followed by a rest period of a few weeks to allow your body to recover from any side effects, and so the number of cells in your blood can go back to normal. The treatment and the rest period together make up a cycle of treatment.

The number of cycles you have will depend on how well your cancer is responding to the chemotherapy.

Your doctor or nurse will explain your treatment plan to you. They will also tell you about any side effects the treatment may cause and who to contact should you have any problems, either within or outside normal working hours. This is a good opportunity to ask questions.

All chemotherapy drugs are prepared specially for you and you may have to wait while the hospital pharmacy department gets them ready. To help pass the time, it can be helpful to take a book, personal stereo, MP3 player, newspaper, crosswords or perhaps some letters to write.

It may take several months to have the complete course of chemotherapy needed to treat your cancer. When chemotherapy is given by an infusion pump it can be given continuously for a period of several days or several weeks.

Some people having their chemotherapy as tablets or capsules take them daily for several weeks or months before they have a rest period. 

Tests before treatment Back to top

You may need some tests before starting your course of treatment. These will include blood tests and possibly urine or heart tests.

Before each cycle of chemotherapy, you’ll normally have blood tests and see the doctor or specialist chemotherapy nurse.

This can take some time. Your GP, practice nurse or the staff at a hospital close to your home may be able to test your blood a day or two before your treatment, so that you don’t have to wait so long on the day of your treatment. If your blood is tested at your GP surgery, or at another hospital, the results can be sent to the hospital where you are having your treatment. Sometimes, you may also need to have more x-rays or scans.

Changes to your treatment plan Back to top

Your doctors will use blood tests and sometimes urine tests to monitor the effect of the chemotherapy on your body.

If you have a tumour that can be seen on a scan or felt by the doctor, the hospital staff will regularly check the effects of the chemotherapy on the cancer. The results from your blood tests and any scans or x-rays can show how much the cancer is responding to the treatment.

Depending on the results of the tests, your treatment plan may sometimes need to be changed. There can be many reasons for this and your doctor will tell you why your treatment needs to be changed. It may be because the drugs you’re having are starting to cause damage to particular parts of the body, such as the bone marrow, kidneys, liver, or nerves in the hands or feet. Sometimes it can be because the chemotherapy is not shrinking the cancer enough. If this is the case, then changing to different drugs may be more effective.

Sometimes your treatment may need to be delayed to give your body longer to recover before the next session of drugs is given. The most common reason treatment is delayed is the number of white cells in the blood being too low|.

If there is a special occasion coming up, or you want to go on holiday, it may be possible to arrange the timing of your treatment to fit in with this. Your doctor can tell you whether this is possible.