Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to kill cancer cells. Unlike
radiation and surgery, which are localized treatments,
chemotherapy is a systemic treatment. This means that the drugs
travel throughout the whole body. This means chemotherapy can
reach cancer cells that may have spread, or metastasized, to
other areas. Chemotherapy is rarely used to treat thyroid
cancer. It is almost exclusively used when other treatments have
failed. If chemotherapy is used, it may be combined with
external radiation therapy. Chemotherapy Drugs Used for Thyroid
Cancer Examples of chemotherapy drugs that may be used to treat
thyroid cancer include: - Bleomycin (Blenoxane) - Dacarbazine
(DTIC-Dome) - Docetaxel (Taxotere) - Doxorubicin (Adriamycin,
Rubex) - Paclitaxel (Onxol, Taxol) - Platinum agents Researchers
are still trying to determine what the benefit of chemotherapy
is for various stages of thyroid cancer and its metastases. In
general, surgery is more important, as is radioablation therapy
. When thyroid cancer is unrespon