Can chemotherapy be used to treat polymyositis successfully?

YES: Polymyositis is an inflammatory muscle disease that is typically treated initially with chemotherapy (usually with IV Cytoxan or cyclophosphamide). Once the disease is in remission, oral therapies are typically used in place of the IV chemotherapy. Steroids are also commonly used.

It dpends: It depends what you mean by chemotherapy. The general answer is yes. Corticosteroid and methotrexate are often used as initial therapies in polymyositis.