The Dove Clinic for Integrated Medicine
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the most widely used method of killing tumour mass. There are huge numbers of high quality studies published in the cancer journals, showing that chemotherapy most definitely works. It is most effective in solid tumours such as Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and especially effective in Leukaemia. It is not as effective in solid tumours such as gastric cancer and oesophageal cancer.
A recent study however, claimed that the overall contribution of chemotherapy to 5 year survival in adult malignancies is estimated at 2.3% in data from Australia and 2.1% in data from the USA (see Morgan G et al, the Contribution of Cytotoxic Chemotherapy to 5 Year Survival in Adult Malignancies. Clinical Oncology (2004) 16:549-560.