Abstract
Despite significant improvement of cytostatic treatment results in certain cancer types during the past years, the final outcome in common solid neoplasms remains unsatisfactory. Findings of clinical studies dealing with combination chemotherapy of metastatic breast cancer which involved almost 10 000 patients were reviewed. No significant improvement in the overall survival times (average 18 months after the start of therapy) was found in this selected group of patients who were treated with intensive palliative chemotherapy. Recently, increased efforts have been undertaken to identify new, active cytostatics in suitable preclinical systems. Promising results from experimental studies carried out during the last 3 years are presented. HECNU, a new water-soluble nitrosourea, has shown significant activity in brain tumours. Steroid-hormone-linked nitrosoureas have been found to be superior to conventional nitrosoureas in experimental mammary carcinoma. In this model, alkylphosphocholines exhibited outstanding therapeutic activity and a completely novel toxicity profile. 4-amino-N-(2′-aminophenyl) benzamide has proved effective in the treatment of slow-growing tumours. Tumour-inhibiting complex compounds with ruthenium or titanium as central metals have shown significant activity in colorectal carcinoma. Osteogenic tumours were treated effectively with razoxane or cisplatin-linked phosphonates. Some of the compounds mentioned are undergoing clinical trials.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.