Myth busting: 7 common misconceptions about chemotherapy

If you thought you knew all about chemotherapy, you might be surprised to learn that it no longer automatically causes severe nausea and vomiting. In fact, medical advances over the years have helped reduce the effect of chemotherapy on the body in several ways. “Chemotherapy has a really bad reputation,” says Dr. Dennis Citrine, MD, a medical oncologist at our hospital near Chicago. “While cancer treatment itself has evolved for the better in recent decades, public perception of it has not caught up with it. Educating patients about the facts is a very important part of what we do every day.”

To help further this education, Dr. Citrine dispels some of the most common myths about chemotherapy:

There is only one type of chemotherapy and it can treat any type of cancer.

Many people believe that all cancers can be treated with the same chemotherapy drug, says Dr. Citrin, and that’s not the case. Different drugs target different types of cancer and work in different ways: to kill cancer cells, shrink tumors, and relieve symptoms of advanced cancer. These medications may be given before, after, or along with other treatments.

Chemotherapy is given only through a vein.

When most people think of chemotherapy, they think of receiving an intravenous infusion as part of an extended hospital stay. In fact, many of today’s chemotherapy drugs are taken orally, and some are taken topically or by injection. Dr. Citrin also says, if a dose of chemotherapy is given intravenously, the patient is usually treated and then discharged. “It doesn’t interrupt the patient’s life like it used to be,” he says.

Chemotherapy causes severe nausea and vomiting.

Just 20 years ago, chemotherapy was associated with severe nausea and vomiting, says Dr. Citrin, and that reputation is well deserved. However, many chemotherapy drugs today are designed in part to prevent nausea and vomiting, or to reduce their severity. “We often tell our patients that if they vomit all day, we’re not doing our job,” says Dr. Citrine.

Chemotherapy can cause a serious and life-threatening infection.

Serious infections are no longer common in chemotherapy patients, in large part because current chemotherapy treatments do not cause immunosuppression; Dr. Cetrin says it causes bone marrow suppression. This means that instead of suppressing the body’s natural immune response, the activity of the bone marrow is limited, causing it to produce fewer red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Because the immune system is not affected, the body is still equipped to fight infection.

If you don’t lose your hair during chemotherapy, it doesn’t work.

Although hair loss is common during chemotherapy, not all patients will experience it. Some medications are more likely to cause hair loss than others, and risks vary widely, from zero to 90 percent probability. Hair that falls out due to chemotherapy usually falls out two to three weeks after the first treatment. Dr. Citrine says the hair loss itself has nothing to do with whether the treatment is working or not.

Chemotherapy causes weight loss.

In fact, the opposite happens more frequently, especially when chemotherapy is prescribed after surgery to prevent breast cancer recurrence. “A lot of breast cancer patients expect to lose weight during chemotherapy, and they were surprised when I told them they should expect to gain five to ten pounds, which is usually a sign that the treatment was working,” says Dr. .

You will not be able to have children after chemotherapy.

This myth is based on the fact that for many women, menstruation stops during chemotherapy. But if a woman is in her twenties, thirties, or even forties, she is likely to menstruate again after treatment ends. “It really depends on the age of the patient, but in most cases, her period returns after the treatment ends, unless she is near or past menopause,” says Dr. Citrine. Some chemotherapy drugs may be prescribed to pregnant patients when diagnosed with cancer that do not affect the baby, so pregnancy should not prevent chemotherapy either.

Because chemotherapy has changed so much over the years and has become an essential to the treatment plans of many cancer patients, education is vital. “Until recently, a lot of people believed that if chemotherapy was prescribed, the cancer must be terminal, but that is a far cry from reality,” says Dr. Citrine. So it’s not so much about debunking ‘myths’ as it is about helping people with Get the facts.”

Learn about supportive care treatments designed to help manage the side effects of chemotherapy and other cancer treatments.