I know, Howard, it feels like a vicious cycle of chemo vs feeling good again, doesn’t it? I dreaded each month too. But there is a method to this madness.

Maybe this will help explain why cycles are repeated. Chemotherapy destroys any and all rapidly dividing cells indiscriminately as they are replicating. Cancer cells are rapidly dividing all the time. But the vast majority of cells in the body are not all actively dividing at any one time and are left unaffected by chemo.

After your first round of chemo, a large quantity of the cancer cells will have been destroyed. However, some of the remaining cancer cells will be in a resting phase or even a dormant state because they sense a hostile environment. After the chemo clears your body and more favorable conditions return, those resting or dormant cells now emerge and start replicating quickly. So, the second round of chemo destroys this new group of active cancer cells. And that cycle may be repeated until your doctor can confirm a remission.

As a side note: Chemo can also have an affect on normal body cells such as hair, fingernails and mucous membranes because they are also rapidly dividing cells. So that is why people may experience hair loss, sores in the mouth, tummy trouble, etc.

Hopefully this helps.