Can chemotherapy control the cancer? what is the goal of each treatment?

Ask your doctor!: That is a great question and a really important one to ask your doctor! the goals of chemo are different for each patient and each cancer type. Sometimes the goal is to completely cure the cancer; sometimes it is to prolong life but not cure the cancer. Sometimes the goal is to relieve symptoms. It might be a hard question to ask, but you should know your doctor's goals for you!

Shrink it too: In addition to what dr. Webster has listed, sometimes chemo is used to shrink the tumor so that it can be surgically removed. It i'd a great question to discuss with your cancer doctor.

Tough question: Chemo is certainly help a lot of colon cancer, with all 5 chemo we have now, people can live upto 36 months, without them, only 6 months to 12 months. However, we do not cure most advanced colon, and in my own lab and others research too, chemo created a lot of cancer stem cells, shocking fact, so we are trying to understand this better and figure out how to reverse this process.

Chemotherapy: Yes, chemo is used to control cancer. Generally speaking- the goal can be divided into 2 : curative intent ( given after definitive treatment-like surgery or before surgery with the aim to shrink the tumor so surgery can be carried out ) or - to relieve symptoms. The goal will depend on the stage of cancer, how good your condition is overall , other diseases etc. Please discuss with your oncologis.