Adjuvant therapy

Adjuvant therapy, also called adjuvant care, is the treatment that is given in addition to the primary, main, or initial treatment. The surgeries and complex treatment regimens used in cancer therapy have led the term to be used mainly to describe adjuvant cancer treatments. An example of adjuvant therapy is the additional treatment usually given after surgery where all detectable disease has been removed, but where there remains a statistical risk of relapse due to occult disease. If a known disease is left behind following surgery, then further treatment is not technically adjuvant.

see Radiotherapy, chemotherapy.