Question

A nurse is caring for a client who has breast cancer and is receiving a combination of chemotherapy medications. The client expresses confusion about the therapy. Which of the following explanations should the nurse provide?

a) "Chemotherapy only targets cancer cells."
b) "Chemotherapy aims to boost the immune system."
c) "Chemotherapy uses drugs to shrink or kill cancer cells."
d) "Chemotherapy primarily focuses on pain relief."

Answer 1

To clarify the client's confusion, the nurse should explain that chemotherapy uses drugs to shrink or kill cancer cells, although it may affect some healthy cells. The treatment is often part of a combination therapy regimen and is central to oncological care.

Step-by-step explanation:

To provide clarity on the confusion about the therapy, the correct explanation a nurse should provide to a client who has breast cancer and is receiving a combination of chemotherapy medications is: "Chemotherapy uses drugs to shrink or kill cancer cells." This description best encapsulates the primary objective of chemotherapy. While chemotherapy drugs do affect rapidly dividing cells and might harm some healthy cells, their main purpose is to attack and eradicate cancer cells. A more advanced type of chemotherapy, known as targeted therapy, aims to minimize side effects by precisely targeting cancer cells and sparing most normal cells.

Traditional cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation often affect both cancerous and non-cancerous cells because it is challenging to target just the cancer cells. However, the advent of targeted therapies has brought forward a promising direction whereby specific molecular pathways associated with cancer are addressed, aiming to spare healthy tissue to a greater extent.