Leucovorin is a drug that can be used either to protect healthy cells from chemotherapy or to enhance the anti-cancer effect of chemotherapy.

This medicine is most often used in cancer patients who are taking either methotrexate or fluorouracil chemotherapy. Methotrexate is used to treat a wide range of cancers including breast cancer, head and neck cancers, acute leukemias, and Burkitt's lymphoma. Fluorouracil is used in combination with leucovorin to treat colorectal cancer. When leucovorin and methotrexate are used together, this therapy is often called leucovorin rescue because leucovorin rescues healthy cells from the toxic effects of methotrexate. In patients with colorectal cancer, however, leucovorin increases the anti-cancer effect of fluorouracil.

Leucovorin is also used to treat megaloblastic anemia, a blood disorder in which red blood cells become larger than normal, and to treat accidental overdoses of drugs like methotrexate.

 

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