Unlike normal cells, cancer cells keep growing and dividing, not knowing when to stop, which results in cells to keep doubling and ending up forming a lump (tumor) that keeps growing in size. Eventually, nee gets a full tumor from the original cancer cell.

Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy these cancer cells. These chemotherapy drugs keep cancer cells from dividing and growing. And as cancer cells usually grow faster than normal cells, chemotherapy drugs affect cancer cells better than normal cells. These drugs are pretty powerful, and they can cause some damage to healthy cells.

Treatment
Cancer treatment with such powerful drugs is called standard chemotherapy or traditional chemotherapy. There are other drugs that help with treating cancer. Several newer drugs are called targeted drugs, as they damage cancer cells by blocking the proteins that are found in the cancer cells. But, as these treatments work particularly on the cancer cells, their effect on the normal cells is usually damaging.

Goals
Depending on the type of cancer, the goal of chemotherapy varies. Sometimes, the goal is to get rid of cancer completely and make sure it doesn’t come back. If that’s not possible, then chemotherapy helps you delay or slow down cancer growth.

Slowing cancer growth helps manage its symptoms. Applying chemotherapy with the goal of slowing or delaying cancer growth is also called palliative chemotherapy.

Types of treatment

• Intravenous (IV) chemotherapy – Many of the chemotherapy drugs require to be injected directly into a vein, hence the term intravenous (IV) chemotherapy. This type of treatment takes a few minutes to a few hours. It could also take longer as some IV drugs work better over the course of a few days or weeks. They are administered through a small pump that one can either carry or wear.
• Oral chemotherapy – There are some chemotherapy drugs that you can take by mouth. Pill, capsule, or liquid, they can be easily picked up at the pharmacy and one can have them at home. These days, an oral treatment for cancer has become pretty common as many drugs used for targeted therapy are pretty effective this way. Some of these drugs are prescribed either daily, whereas others are given less often. Like four weeks of taking the medications, then followed by a 2-week break.
• Injected chemotherapy – Certain chemotherapy drugs work better as a shot. Some of these shots are usually given in a muscle while others are injected under the skin like in the arm, leg, or abdomen.
• Intra-arterial (IA) chemotherapy – The purpose of an artery is to carry blood from the heart to other parts of the body. Sometimes, chemotherapy drugs are directly injected into an artery to reach cancer, hence the term intra-arterial (IA) chemotherapy.

• Intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy – For certain types of cancers, the required medication is just placed directly in the belly or the abdomen. This type of treatment covers cancers that involve the peritoneum, which covers the inside surface of the abdomen and also surrounds the liver, intestines, and stomach. Ovarian cancer is one such type of cancer.

These are some of the ways to treat cancer. The doctor will select the one which is most suitable for the patient depending upon the stage of cancer, its severity, and other influencing factors.