Chemotherapy means the use of medicines to kill cancer cells. It is a systemic therapy (it moves through the blood stream and affects the entire body). The drugs may be given by mouth or intravenous route. It is used for multiple purposes- to shrink a tumour prior to surgery, to decrease the chances of recurrence following surgery, to prevent metastases by killing any cells that may have moved from original site of cancer, to treat metastases or any combination of these. The drugs used for chemotherapy kill rapidly dividing cells. Cancer cells are rapidly dividing, hence they get killed by chemotherapy, however other normal cells in the body which are rapidly dividing also get killed likebone marrow cells and hair follicles. That is why patients experience hair loss and other side effects during chemotherapy. However these side effects are temporary and easily manageable by medicines, hence there is no need to fear chemotherapy. Hormonal therapy means the use of medicines which block estrogen and progesterone receptors on the breast cancer cells, thus preventing them from growing and multiplying. Not all breast cancers are hormone receptor positive. Hence only the ones which are estrogen and/or progesterone receptor positive are given the hormone therapy. The choice of hormone therapy depends upon several factors like age, menopausal status, any other diseases, bone mineral density etc.