[Adjuvant chemotherapy of cancer: immediate costs and long-term risks]

Medical, psychologic, socio-professional and economic side effects of adjuvant chemotherapy are frequent. Some of these are not easily recognized with accuracy. They influence directly the life of treated patients and perhaps later their medical future. They involve the quality of life for cancer patients, after initial curative treatments. Indications for adjuvant chemotherapy cannot be extended without comparative evaluation of their advantages and disadvantages. It is necessary to select patients with the highest probability of improvement in the duration and the quality of life and to give them so active but the least toxic treatments possible.