Adjuvant therapy

In medicine , adjuvant therapy refers to complementary or supportive therapeutic measures.

In the case of infectious diseases (e.g. AIDS ), this means that a drug mitigates the effects, but is not solely capable of healing.

In oncology , the term for cancer describes a therapy that is applied after the complete surgical removal of all recognizable tumor parts in order to combat possible, but not yet detectable tumor settlements ( micrometastases ) and thereby improve the long-term healing prospects.

As part of adjuvant therapy, z. B. chemotherapy , hormone therapy , immunotherapy and radiation therapy are used. Curative therapies serve to heal (curare = to heal), palliative therapies to improve the quality of life. Usually one tries to treat curatively. This includes removing the tumor (e.g. through surgery) and considering how high the risk of relapse or metastasis is and how this risk can be reduced by adjuvant therapy (e.g. anti-hormonal therapy or chemotherapy), which is then carried out if necessary. If a cure is not possible, palliative therapy is carried out. Its aim is to alleviate illness-related symptoms, to inhibit the progression of the disease, to achieve freedom from symptoms and the highest possible quality of life and to maintain it for as long as possible.

Chemotherapy before an operation with the aim of shrinking ("melting down") a tumor and thus making it more operable or at all operable is called neoadjuvant .

Individual evidence

1. ^ W. Pschyrembel .: "Clinical Dictionary", de Gruyter, ISBN 3110070189
2. ^ BE Hurwitz et al .: Suppression of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Viral Load With Selenium Supplementation: A Randomized Controlled Trial . In: Arch Intern Med . 2007; 167: 148-154, online here

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