Principles of Chemotherapy - Experimental Oncology Graduate Study

Chemotherapy (CT): General points• 35 CT drugs are currently available in North America; ~15 are in common use.• Many patients receive CT at some point in their management.• Useful symptom relief and disease arrest are often obtained.• CT is generally used as:(a)(b)(c)(d)the major curative modality for malignancies such as Hodgkin's disease andother lymphomas, acute childhood leukemia, and testicular cancer;palliative treatment for many advanced cancers;adjuvant treatment before ("neo-adjuvant") or after ("post-adjuvant") localtreatment (surgery or XRT) for primary disease with the aim of eradicatingoccult micrometastases; orin combination with other modalities (usually XRT) to improve their therapeuticeffects.2