chemotherapy

American  

[kee-moh-ther-uh-pee, kem-oh-] / ˌki moʊˈθɛr ə pi, ˌkɛm oʊ- /

noun

Medicine/Medical.

• chemotherapies
  plural

1. the treatment of disease by means of chemicals that have a specific toxic effect upon the disease-producing microorganisms or that selectively destroy cancerous tissue.

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chemotherapy British  

/ ˌkiːməʊˈθɛrəpɪ, kiːmə- /

noun

1. treatment of disease, esp cancer, by means of chemical agents Compare radiotherapy

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chemotherapy Scientific  

/ kē′mō-thĕr′ə-pē /

1. The treatment of disease, especially cancer, using drugs that are destructive to malignant cells and tissues.

2. The treatment of disease using chemical agents or drugs that are selectively toxic to the causative agent of the disease, such as a microorganism.

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chemotherapy Cultural  

1. The treatment of disease with chemicals. The term chemotherapy often refers to a kind of treatment for cancer in which chemicals are administered to destroy cancer cells.

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Discover More

There are often side effects to chemotherapy, a common one being the temporary loss of hair.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• chemotherapist
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• chemotherapies
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of chemotherapy

First recorded in 1905–10; chemo- + therapy

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Explanation

Chemotherapy is a common treatment for cancer. Patients who receive chemotherapy take strong anti-cancer drugs meant to kill the cancer cells. Chemotherapy is given through an IV directly into a patient's veins or in pill form. While chemotherapy is a powerful tool for keeping cancer cells from reproducing, it can often make people feel quite sick because it kills other cells as well. The word literally means "treatment of diseases by chemicals," from the German Chemotherapie and its roots, the scientific prefix chemo-, "chemical," and the Greek therapeia, "healing."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

chemotherapy chemotherapies

Children with genuinely lower-risk tumors might avoid some of the harmful side effects associated with intensive chemotherapy, while those with hidden aggressive disease could receive stronger or more targeted treatment earlier.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2026

“It demonstrates that we can continue to bring antibody-drug conjugates into areas where classic chemotherapy has historically been the standard of care,” the head of AstraZeneca’s oncology business, David Fredrickson, said in an interview.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026

Surgery cures most breast cancers, but if some disease remains, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and endocrine therapy can reduce the long-term risk.

From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026

Jett was last seen Jan. 14, 2024, when she went to a chemotherapy session to treat her cancer.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

A girl named Rose says, “Well, because of her cells the medical field had major breakthroughs, like the polio vaccine, chemotherapy, and the creation of drugs that treat leukemia, influenza, and Parkinson’s disease.”

From "Watch Us Rise" by Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan

"When I failed the chemotherapies that were on the market, no one wanted me in their clinical trials," she said at the 2020 Republican National Convention.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

The deal will expand Gilead’s capabilities in antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, which deliver powerful chemotherapies to cancerous cells without harming nearby cells.

From Barron's ● Apr. 7, 2026

Most of the genes they found that were essential to cell survival in low-glucose tumor environments were also involved in pyrimidine synthesis, a precise biological pathway targeted by many chemotherapies.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 26, 2024

Working with Valerie Kickhoefer in Rome’s lab, the group then found that the drug-resistant cancer cells generated many more vaults than nonresistant ones, suggesting the structures might sequester or expel chemotherapies.

From Science Magazine ● Jun. 6, 2024

We started to have steroids, we started to have the wide availability of antibiotics, we started to have effective chemotherapies, we started to have drugs which were really effective in various mental health issues.

From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2023

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