2- Intro to chemotherapeutics Flashcards
What type of chemotherapeutic agents do vets use?
Cytotoxic drugs - inhibit mitosis/damage DNA
Kills rapidly dividing cells
Give 2 examples of commonly used cytotoxic drugs for lymphoma
Vincristine, doxorubicin, Chlorambucil, Cyclophosphamide
Limitations of cytotoxic drugs
Palliative not curative
Kills other rapidly dividing cells not just neoplastic - not specific
List 3 classes of chemotherapeutic drugs
Alkylating agents
Plant alkaloids
Anti metabolites
Anti-tumour antibiotics
Platinum analogs
Tyrosine kinase inhibitors
Mechanism of action of plant alkaloids
Bind to tubule in cells & disrupt mitotic spindle
Mechanism of action of anti metabolites
Inhibit the use of cellular metabolites during the cell growth/division
Mechanism of action of platinum analogs
Binds platinum to DNA = causes cross-linkage & cell death
What type of chemotherapeutic drugs is used in osteosarcoma & carcinomas?
Platinum analogs (Carboplatin)
What type of chemotherapeutic agent is doxorubicin?
Anti-tumour antibiotic
What is the most important thing to consider when using chemotherapy in animals
Qol must be maintained - so generally not as aggressive with it as we are in humans
what is a chemotherapeutic agent
a drug used to treat cancers by causing cell death or stopping cells from dividing
describe metronomic chemotherapy
giving a very low dose of chemo every day or every other day
sims to delay or slow disease progression not kill cancer cells
inhibits angiogensis- to reduce blood supply to tumour, therefore limiting its growth
list 2 cytotoxic drugs which are cell cycle specific
vincristine
vinblastine
cytarabine
what are cell cycle specific cytotoxic drugs
kill a limited number of cancer cells with any single dose
list 2 examples of Cell cycle non specific drugs
doxorubicin
cyclophosphamide
lomustine
chlorambucil
