This week's artwork was donated by Lauren , a pediatric cancer patient who received treatment at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia . Chemotherapy drugs slow or stop cancer cells from growing and making more abnormal cells.
Cancer cells go through many steps to grow.
There are many types of chemotherapy drugs and each interferes with cell growth at a different step. These drugs can also affect healthy cells, but healthy cells can repair and return to normal. Chemotherapy is combined with surgery or radiation therapy when it has been shown to be a more powerful approach to treating cancer. Neo-adjuvant therapy is chemotherapy that is given to shrink a tumor before surgery or radiation therapy. Adjuvant chemotherapy is done after surgery or radiation therapy to destroy cells that may be circulating in the body.