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

Etymology

Origin of chemotherapy

First recorded in 1905–10; chemo- + therapy

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

That some people might stop taking insulin or pursuing chemotherapy, or that other desperate people would be given false hope?

From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026

Immunotherapy and chemotherapy can help some patients, but the disease is still extremely difficult to control.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026

Jones described her years taking the chemotherapy drugs as "horrendous".

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

Her treatment continued for more than a decade, until suddenly, in 2024, she received a phonecall from a doctor saying her chemotherapy was stopping.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

Sometimes, he had really bad aches, especially in his legs, and he was tired a lot of the time, and the chemotherapy drugs were making him feel pretty rotten physically.

From "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick

"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

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

This approach has been shown to result in better outcomes for patients, but it is not widely used for chemotherapies such as 5-fluorouracil.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 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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