Adjuvant Therapy

Adjuvant therapy is defined as the use of another form of treatment in addition to and following the initial curative procedure or treatment. The goal of adjuvant therapy is to improve the chances of cure of a cancer. Imagine a 45-year-old female with early stage breast cancer. First, she will have surgery to remove the cancer from her breast. The cancer may be very small and she may have no evidence of disease in any other parts of her body. However, following surgery, chemotherapy may be administered to reduce the possibility of recurrence of her disease in future. This is called Adjuvant Chemotherapy.

Adjuvant therapy is also administered to patients with early stage colon and rectal cancer, who may have surgery first, followed by chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy to reduce the risk of relapse of the cancer, and to increase the chances of cure.

Some women with early stage breast cancer, after having surgery or chemotherapy, are put on Tamoxifen. This is also an adjuvant treatment.

Neo-adjuvant therapy refers to a similar treatment, however the timing of it is prior to the curative treatment as opposed to a later time frame.  We often use this method of treating cancers, when the cancerous tumor is larger than we like it, making surgery difficult.  In this situation, surgery to remove the cancer is performed after chemotherapy with the intention of chemotherapy shrinking the tumor and making surgery easier.