Who needs adjuvant therapy?

Many cancer patients: Adjuvant therapy means treatment for someone who has had a cancer removed and the treatment is given to increase the likelihood of cure. Clinical trials data tell us what to look for to assess the risk of cancer coming back after what we hope is curative surgery. Adjuvant treatment is commonly used with cancers of the breast, colon and lung. It might be with chemo, hormones or radiation.

Stage III cases: Adjuvant chemotherapy is a term used post surgery to attempt to minimize the potential for recurrent or metastatic disease. Neoadjuvant therapy is applied presurgery in an attempt to help reduce the size of a lesion to increase operability.