Antineoplastic Drugs Flashcards
common concepts of cancer chemotherapy
- Action on cell cycle kinetics
2. Cell kill hypotheses
Action on cell cycle kinetics
cell cycle-specific drugs & cell cycle-nonspecific drugs
cell cycle-specific drugs
drugs that act on tumor cells during the mitotic cycle and are usually phase specific
cell cycle-nonspecific
drugs that act on tumor cells in both resting and cycling phases
cell kill hypotheses
theoretical model that predicts ability of antineoplastic drugs to eliminate a certain percentage of cancer cells
if large percentage is killed, immune system can kill the rest
Growth Fraction
measurement of cells undergoing mitosis- # of replicating cells/ # of resting cells; antineoplastic drugs are more effective on tumors with high growth fractions
combination chemotherapy
multiple drugs attack tumor cells in different stages of cell cycle; lower loses of each agent for better ability to attack tumor and less risk for adverse effects
dosing schedules
intermittent scheduling which allows patient to recover and allows tumor cells to reenter mitotic phase
route of administration
available through enteral, topical and parenteral routes
antineoplastic agents
alkylating agents, antimetabolites, antitumor antibiotics, natural products, hormones and hormone antagonists & biologic response modifiers
Alkylating agents
Prototype Drug:
- CCNS; alkyl agents bind to guanine and cause cross lining DNA strands which causes cell apoptosis
- cyclophosphamide
Cyclophosphamide
causes bladder toxicity
uses: ovarian cancer, breast cancer, neuroblastoma, sarcoma, retinoblastoma
Antimetabolites
CCS drugs, target S phase of cell cycle
drugs have similar structures as nutrient that tumour cells need for DNA synthesis so cells use drug instead of normal nutrients
classes of antimetabolites
Folic acid analogues, purine analogues and pyrimidine analogues
folic acid analogues
similar to folic acid, inhibits folic acid needed for DNA synthesis
