What is "adjuvant therapy"

n. (context medicine English) any secondary treatment for cancer (such as chemotherapy) given after the primary treatment (such as surgery) in order to remove residual microscopic disease

Adjuvant therapy or care, also called adjunct therapy or adjunctive therapy or care, is therapy that is given in addition to the primary, main, or initial therapy to maximize its effectiveness. As an adjuvant agent modifies the effect of another agent, so adjuvant therapy modifies other therapy. 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 such 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 known disease is left behind following surgery, then further treatment is not technically adjuvant.