Common Myths About Chemo

Chemotherapy treatment has progressed profoundly in the last 30 years, but common knowledge about what chemotherapy entails hasn't quite caught up to the realities.

While it's true that chemotherapy can be a difficult and painful process, it's not a one-size-fits-all experience. "There are people who get sick and can't work and suffer from fatigue, but there are also people who have nominal or no side effects and don't have any trouble returning to work," says Dr. Clifford Hudis, chief of Breast Cancer Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. "The key thing to understand is that what your neighbor experienced or what your family member experienced doesn’t predict what you will. There's a wide range of 'typical' experiences."

Parade asked several cancer experts to share the most common myths—and truths—about chemotherapy that they encounter in their practices.

1. If my doctor wants me to start chemotherapy, it must mean that I am terminally ill.

Thirty years ago, being put on a chemotherapy course often meant that your health outlook was poor. Not so today, because chemotherapy is often used as an adjuvant therapy, meaning that it's given in a preventive setting and given after a primary treatment such as surgery and/or radiation therapy, in an effort to prevent the cancer from coming back.

2. I'll have to spend a lot of time in the hospital, and it will be very disruptive to my life.

Chemotherapy drugs are administered now in many different ways, depending on a patient's condition and needs. Most chemo is given intravenously through a needle or catheter, but sometimes chemo drugs can be given with a simple shot, or even in a pill or liquid form that you can take at home.

3. I am going to be sick and nauseous for a long time.

While nausea and vomiting are common side effects, not everyone suffers from them. Talk to your doctors about any nausea, vomiting or pain, because they may be able to adjust your regimen and alleviate those symptoms. "The prevention treatments that we now have are really very effective," says Dr. Hudis. "Twenty years ago, people were very sick in some cases. We even used to have to sedate them so that the chemotherapy would be deliverable—and that's really rare nowadays."

4. If I'm not sick, the chemo must not be working.
Because treatment can be quite arduous for some, patients tend to mistakenly believe that no pain means no gain. "We don't fully understand why some people have side effects and others don't," says Dr. Eric Winer, chief scientific advisor for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. "But it doesn't mean that just because your treatment is not causing you problems that it's not causing the cancer problems."

5. I'm going to lose all my hair.

Not all chemo drugs cause hair loss. But for those patients who do suffer from hair thinning or total loss, it will grow back (about 1/4 to 1/2 inch a month is typical) after a treatment course is complete. In some cases, regrowth begins before the treatment is even done.