Skilled & Compassionate Cancer Care Services

Chemotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses a combination of medications applied directly to the bloodstream through an IV to fight off cancer cells. It can also slow down the progression of cancer, giving your cancer care team more time to create a treatment plan designed to wipe out the disease entirely.

It’s no secret that chemotherapy is not an easy treatment. The side effects can be uncomfortable and make it harder to go about your day. That said, chemotherapy affects everyone differently, and when used strategically the benefits of the treatment far outweigh the costs.

How Does Chemotherapy Work?

The battle against cancer is really a battle against cancer cells. Cancerous cells are on a mission to reproduce and take over the body, so cancer treatment is focused on stopping these cells and destroying as many of them as possible.

Chemotherapy medications are very efficient killers of cancer cells. Unfortunately, the medications cannot always distinguish between cancer cells and healthy cells, and they often attack both. This is why chemotherapy can cause adverse side effects.

Common side effects of chemotherapy include:

• Nausea and vomiting
• Hair loss
• Fatigue
• Weakened immune system
• A tendency to bleed more
• Loss of appetite
• Diminished sex drive
• Short-term memory loss
• Depression

Again, chemotherapy affects patients differently. Some people may experience many of these symptoms, while others encounter very few or none at all. It often depends on what type of cancer you are fighting and how often you receive treatment.

Chemotherapy at Glendive Medical Center

Chemotherapy is administered in the Outpatient Care Department located in Surgery. Registered Nurses certified in chemotherapy administer the medications as ordered by the patient's oncologist.

Several visiting physicians from Billings Clinic come to Glendive Medical Center on a monthly basis to provide oncology care. The chemotherapy nurses also provide care to patients of oncologists from other medical facilities in our region.

You can schedule an appointment for chemotherapy by calling 406-345-3345.

To view the visiting physician calendar click here.