How is Chemotherapy Given?

• By mouth
• In the vein (IV)*
• In an artery (intra-arterial)
• Into a muscle
• Into the tissue just under the skin (subcutaneous)
• Directly in to a body cavity, such as the bladder, peritoneum
• Directly into an organ, such as the liver or a limb
• Into the cerebrospinal fluid (this is the fluid that surrounds our spinal cord and brain)

*When many needle sticks into a vein are expected, some patients will have a "port" surgically placed just under the skin in the upper chest. This port gives health care workers easy access to a vein to give medicines or to have blood specimens drawn.

Chemo is usually given in "cycles". A cycle of chemotherapy will differ from one regimen to the next. It is repeating the way a drug or a group of drugs is given in a specific number of days. The cycle is repeated a number of times. The doctor chooses the drugs and the cycle of chemotherapy from completed and successful research studies, which spell out the dose of the drugs to be given and how often they should be given. Sometimes the timing or dose of a chemo drug will have to be changed because of the way your body is responding to the drugs.