What Is TC Chemotherapy for Cancer?

TC is a chemotherapy regimen used for some breast cancers. Teams sometimes weigh it against regimens that contain an anthracycline. Which one fits depends on the risk of recurrence and on other health factors.

Regimen names look like alphabet soup at first. Most are built from drug initials, timing, and sometimes the order of treatment. Read a page like this to learn what a name means. Then ask your team how their version applies to you.

TC may come up after surgery, or before it, when chemotherapy is part of breast cancer care.

One regimen name can cover several different situations. Doses and schedules vary as well. Do not use this page to work out doses, change medicines, or compare your plan with someone else's.

Before a regimen begins, the team checks a great deal. That can include pathology, stage, biomarkers, organ function, blood counts, and infection risk. It can also include your medicines, allergies, fertility concerns, and whether a port or PICC line would help. Some regimens also call for anti-nausea medicines, steroid instructions, a hydration plan, heart tests, or neuropathy checks.

• What are the names of each drug in my regimen?
• How many cycles are planned, and what would change that plan?
• Which side effects are common, and which are urgent?
• Will I need growth-factor shots, transfusions, or infection precautions?
• How will we know whether it is working?
• What happens if side effects force a delay or dose change?

Ask about growth-factor shots, low blood counts, neuropathy, nail changes, fatigue, and allergic reactions. Ask how to take the steroids you are given.

Your care team knows which side effects matter most for your exact regimen, doses, and health history. Get the after-hours number and the fever rules before the first infusion.

Sometimes two regimens offer similar benefits with different trade-offs. Ask what the alternatives are, and why this plan is preferred. Ask whether a clinical trial fits. Ask whether a second opinion should happen before treatment begins.

TC lowers your white blood cell count for part of each cycle. That makes infection the main urgent risk, and fever may be its only sign.

• Call 911 or go to an emergency department if you have trouble breathing, swelling of the face or throat, chest tightness, or you feel faint during or after an infusion.
• Call your care team right away, day or night, if you have a temperature of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher or shaking chills. The CDC calls a fever during chemotherapy a medical emergency, because infection can move fast while your white cells are low. If nobody picks up quickly, head to an emergency department and say at the desk that you are on chemotherapy.
• Call your care team the same day if vomiting or diarrhea will not settle, or you cannot keep fluids down.
• Call your care team within a day or two if you have mouth sores, numbness or tingling in your hands or feet, or a new rash or nail change.

Do not take fever medicine, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen, before you call. It can lower a fever and hide a serious infection. Get the after-hours number and your team's fever rules before your first cycle.

Start with Chemotherapy, How Chemotherapy Is Given, What to Bring to Chemotherapy, and Low White Blood Cells During Chemotherapy.

• National Cancer Institute — Docetaxel
• National Cancer Institute — Cyclophosphamide
• National Cancer Institute — Infection and Neutropenia During Cancer Treatment
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — Fever and Cancer Treatment