Doctors generally administer chemotherapy drugs with breaks, so that the patient has time to rest and the body can recover before the next treatment. These pauses allow healthy cells to recover from the effects of medications and grow back. For example, you may receive a dose of chemotherapy on the first day and then have three weeks of recovery before repeating treatment. Each three-week period is called a treatment cycle. Several cycles make up a course of chemotherapy. The number of cycles is individual for each patient and each type of tumor, this should be discussed directly with the doctor once the objectives that the treatment is intended to achieve are explained.