Survival after cancer chemotherapy is closely related to the treatment regimen, cancer type and the sensitivity of cancer cells to chemotherapy drugs, and cannot be generalized. Different cancer patients need to choose different chemotherapy regimens, such as neoadjuvant chemotherapy, postoperative chemotherapy, and palliative chemotherapy for advanced cancer. For cancer patients with higher sensitivity to chemotherapy drugs, such as lymphatic system malignancies and small cell lung cancer, chemotherapy is the first choice of treatment, and some patients can achieve a longer survival period and may even survive for a long time. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy and postoperative chemotherapy, usually used for patients who can be operated but have difficult surgery or residuals after surgery, can prolong the survival of patients after chemotherapy, such as 2-3 years or longer. In contrast, palliative chemotherapy for patients with advanced cancer can only relieve patients’ symptoms in most cases without curative effect, and patients have a shorter survival period, which may be 1-3 years or less. Cancer patients need to undergo a combination of surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy according to their specific conditions to prolong their survival as long as possible.