Why is chemotherapy used to treat breast cancer?

You want to understand the reason you need chemotherapy and your treatment goals from your doctor’s perspective. There are three basic reasons for chemotherapy:

Cure the cancer. Destroy cancer cells to the point they can no longer be detected.

Stop the cancer. Keep the cancer cells from spreading.

Slow the growth of cancer. Ease pain or other symptoms, slow recurring cancer, and help radiation therapy, hormone therapy, and surgery work better.