Antineoplastic Drug Therapy Flashcards
What is chemotherapy?
Cytotoxic agents that kill or inhibit the growth of rapidly dividing cells, including cancer cells.
Chemotherapy is not tumoricidal and can affect normal rapidly dividing cells.
What does hormonal therapy target?
Hormone-sensitive cancers by blocking or opposing hormone activity.
Examples include treatments for breast and prostate cancer.
What is targeted drug therapy?
Aims to act on specific molecules involved in cancer cell growth, minimizing harm to healthy cells.
What is the purpose of supportive drug therapy?
Manages the adverse effects of cancer treatments, protecting cells or organs from damage.
What does it mean for chemotherapy to be cell-cycle specific?
Chemotherapy drugs work at specific phases of the cell cycle.
Name a type of antimetabolite used in chemotherapy.
Folate Antagonists, Purine Antagonists, Pyrimidine Antagonists.
Examples include Methotrexate, Cladribine, and Fluorouracil.
What do mitotic inhibitors do?
Interfere with cell division, either before or during mitosis.
Name a class of drugs that includes Vinca Alkaloids.
Mitotic Inhibitors.
Example: Vincristine disrupts mitotic spindle formation.
What are topoisomerase inhibitors?
Inhibit topoisomerase enzymes involved in DNA strand breakage/repair.
What do alkylating drugs do?
Directly damage DNA by adding an alkyl group, leading to abnormal chemical bonds, preventing reproduction, and causing cell death.
Examples include Cyclophosphamide and Cisplatin.
True or False: Cytotoxic antibiotics can intercalate into DNA.
True.
What type of therapy is Tamoxifen?
Estrogen Receptor Modulator.
It acts on breast cancer cells.
Fill in the blank: Androgen Deprivation Therapy interferes with _______ production in prostate cancer.
testosterone.
What does immunotherapy do?
Stimulates the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells.
What is CAR-T Cell Therapy?
Patient T-cells are harvested, modified, and reprogrammed to attack specific cancer cells then re-infused back into the patient.
