17 and 18 Antineoplastics Flashcards
Cancer causes over how many deaths annually in the USA?
500,000 second only to heart disease
What is the % of diagnosed patients cured?
What percentage cured by chemotherapy?
What % cured by local measures?
- 50%
- 17%
- 33%
What are the 5 shortcomings mentioned of chemotherapies?
- cancer is a group of diseases
- cancers result from genetic alterations
- No foreign organism to target
- Harm to normal host
- low therapeutic indices
T-F—chemotherapeutic agents have high therapeutic indices?
False–a low index means its more toxic at lower doses
What 3 ways do conventional chemotherapeutic agents act?
inhibit metabolism (RNA synthesis)
Damage DNA
Interfere with mitotic machinery
T-F–chemotherapeutics do not attack the host cell?
False–they do
Does activation or inactivation of oncogenes overrides G_ arrest?
Activation, G1 arrest
Inactivation of tumor suppressor genes overrides what cell cycle arrest?
G2
When is the DNA replication checkpoint?
End of G2 phase
When is the restriction point checkpoint?
End of G1
What does S phase stand for?
synthetic phase, DNA replication
What is the order of the cell cycle starting from G0?
G1–>S—>G2—>M
What is the tumor cell growth fraction?
Fraction of cells not in G0
Are differentiated tumor cells responsive to chemotherapy?
not responsive they are in G0
[cycling cells are sensitive to cytotoxic drugs attacking cell cycle]
Which tumor cells are are responsive to conventional chemotherapy?
non G0
What is micro metastases derived from what does it lead to?
presumably derived from tumor stem cells, generally the ultimate cause of lethality
Is micrometastases susceptible to chemotherapeutic agents?
yes
Toxic side effects are most pronounced on what types of cells?
Noncancerous proliferating cells
- bone marrow
- intestinal epithelial cells
- oral mucosa
- gonadal cells
- hair follicles
according to the log kill hypothesis how many cells does each intervention kill?
eradicates the same percentage of tumor cells (you have to stop to take breaks to relieve the adverse effects in which the cancer cells grow again)
What are the 4 primary applications for chemotherapy?
1- metastatic/hematopoietic cancer
2- surgical adjuvant
3- lymphomas, leukemias
4- palliative/prolong life
What are the 3 major alkylating agents/classes of alkylating agents?
bischloroethyl amines, nitrosoureas, procarbazine
What drug was the nitrogen mustard that was used in mustard gas World War 1?
mechlorethamine
What less highly reactive derivative has been developed to replace mechlorethamine? What does it require?
cyclophophamide
-activation in liver or tumor tissues
Dechlorination of the bischloroethyl amines leaves what energy state?
+ state- electrophile
[this is what attacks neutrophils nitrogen in DNA bases]
T-F–cross linked guanine residues leads to less DNA damage?
False- more significant DNA damage
T-F–nitrosoureas have strong cross-resistance with other alkylating agents?
false-little, and this is why you can use multiple alkylating agents in multi drug treatment.
What alkylating agents cross-brain barrier, useful against brain tumors?
Nitrosoureas
What alkylating agents are effective against Hodgkin’s disease?
procarbazine
does Procarbazine have little or a lot of cross-resistance with other antineoplastic agents?
little cross-resistance
What alkylating agent might cause leukemia? what risk?
procarbazine, 5-10%
[it’s because alkylating agents are mutagenic so increase risk of another cancer]
What is the major anti-tumor antimetabolites?
Methotrexate
What metabolic substrate is methotrexate an analog of?
folic acid
What does methotrexate inhibit?
- dihydrofolate reductase
- blocks synthesis of DNA, RNA, and protein precursors
What does methotrexate accumulate as?
polyglutamate derivative
T-F methotrexate is G1 phase-specific?
False- s phase
What nucleic acid base does methotrexate impair?
thymidine
What are the mechanisms of resistance for methotrexate? 4
- amplification of DHFR gene
- DHFR gene mutation
- decreased uptake
- increased drug efflux
How do you rescue methotrexate? drug?
folinic acid—leucovorin
What are the 2 major purine antagonists? What phase are they specific to?
6-mercapto-purine
6-thioguanine
-S phase specific because block purine synthesis
What is a common mechanism of resistance for purine antagonists?
down regulation of HGPRT
[hypoxanthine-guanine phophoribosyl transferase-activates the antagonists]
T-F–6-thioguanine is metabolically inactivated by xanthine oxidase?
False__6-mercaptopurine