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A Slow And Steady Approach To Chemotherapy

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Doctors first found a tumor in Nick Claudio's brain when he was 9 years old. Surgery to remove it caused him to lose his eyesight. Now 16, Nick still has tumors in his brain, but more surgery could cost him his hearing. He's now on a drug regimen known as "low-dose chemo." It's a gentler, steadier drug regiment that aims not to cure cancer but to keep it at bay. Doctors think it could help with a central challenge they face: that many cancers evolve and become resistant to treatment. (Joe DiFazio for WBUR)
Doctors first found a tumor in Nick Claudio's brain when he was 9 years old. Surgery to remove it caused him to lose his eyesight. Now 16, Nick still has tumors in his brain, but more surgery could cost him his hearing. He's now on a drug regimen known as "low-dose chemo." It's a gentler, steadier drug regiment that aims not to cure cancer but to keep it at bay. Doctors think it could help with a central challenge they face: that many cancers evolve and become resistant to treatment. (Joe DiFazio for WBUR)

When doctors treat cancer with chemotherapy, they usually attack the tumor as aggressively as the patient can bear. Then, after a break, they do it again. And again.

But that hard-hitting chemo tactic can have a downside: a few resistant cancer cells may survive, and the cancer can come back.

Now some cancer specialists are trying a gentler, steadier kind of treatment that aims not to cure cancer, but to keep it at bay. Carey Goldberg (@commonhealth) from Here & Now contributor WBUR reports.

This segment aired on June 22, 2017.

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