Final answer:
Induction chemotherapy is a treatment strategy in medical oncology used to reduce cancer size pre-surgery or achieve remission, aiming for 'total cell-kill' by eradicating cancer cells and preventing resistance with combination chemotherapy.
Step-by-step explanation:
Induction chemotherapy is used in the medical field of oncology, specifically within the subset of medical oncology. The purpose of induction chemotherapy is to administer anti-cancer drugs with the intent to reduce the size of a cancer before surgery or radiation therapy, achieve a remission in cases of leukemia or lymphomas, or in some instances, provide therapy that is intended to cure the patient. This approach fits within the strategy of combination chemotherapy, where multiple drugs with different mechanisms of action are used concurrently to prevent cancer cells from mutating to become resistant.
Essentially, induction chemotherapy aims to achieve a 'total cell-kill' by eradicating the entire population of neoplastic cells, which is crucial to ensuring the long-term success of cancer treatment. Chemotherapy targets rapidly dividing cells and may cause side effects by affecting healthy tissues with a high replacement rate. However, the goal of this intensive treatment is to maximize the destruction of cancer cells while mitigating damage to healthy cells through precise dosing and drug combinations.