How does chemotherapy work?

[Angel Eyez]

Here are some brief details. My sister weighed about 230 before all this started happening. For about the past 6 months she has been complaining that her stomach hurts all the time and whenever she eats, she gets sick. She has dropped down to 130 just in the past 3 months. We had been telling her way before now to go see a doctor and she said she was fine and she didn't want to go. Anyways, Wednsday she decided to go because the pain became too much to bear. The doctor pretty much called her a crazy anorexic and said she would run some tests just to make my sister happy. Well they did bloodwork and an ultra sound to check her gal bladder. The doc called my mom at 2 in the morning and said she needs to get to a hospital right away. He said that her white blood count was 5 times what it should be. Then, when the nurse was undressing my sis to put on a gown, she stumbled upon a mass on her shoulder that was 5 inches in diameter. We can't believe my sister hid this from us for so long.
She would always wear loose fitting shirts. Then they did a CT scan and said that they found more than 10 more masses inside. They did a biopsy and diagnosed it as lymphoma(not sure how to spell it) and now she is really scared because they told her she must undergo chemotherapy. My family is wondering if that will take care of the tumors, inside and out and how the process works. She is scared of losing her hair but I told her that her hair is just a thing that can be replaced but she can't be replaced. I am kind of upset that she didn't tell anyone sooner or see a doc sooner but all that matters now is that she is gonna get better. By the way, she is only 23 years old. Please tell me anything you know about this disease and also they implanted this device in her chest that is supposed to make it easier to administer IVs though I can't remember the name. Please help, I am trying to be strong.Thanks for anything you can offer me.

[knittinmama]

Your sister now has a portacath, which will make it much easier to administer chemotherapy. Instead of having to find a "good vein" to stick a needle the port-a-cath keeps a vein open, so to speak so the nurse doesn't have to stick her numerous times to get the iv going.

You might want to do some research on lymphoma. cancer.org is a good place to start.

You might help your sister through treatment by finding some fun hats or scarves for her. I preferred them to wigs and I also found that a bald head, even in the summer time can get cold. A bald head can also be a fashion statement. After bald is beautiful.

[KesperQ]

I'm really sorry to hear about your sister. I'm off to bed, but the quick answer for your question is that chemotherapy works by killing every actively dividing cell in the body. Most cells are not or can no longer divide, but cancer cells never stop dividing - this creates tumours as their numbers multiply. So mainly chemotherapy gets cancer cells, but it will also get some regular body cells such as hair.