Chemotherapy Flashcards
What are the types of chemotherapy?
- palliative chemotherapy (symptom control)
- curative chemotherapy (leukaemia, testicular carcinoma)
What is the common system of staging?
T - size of tumour
N - number of lymph nodes spread
M - if metastasised
What is adjuvant therapy?
After surgery/radiotherapy to control or eradicate metastasis
How is metastatic cancer treated?
Palliative or curative chemotherapy
What is neo-adjuvant chemotherapy?
To make surgery or radiotherapy possible
- to alleviate surgical damage
- to eradicate metastasis
How are haematological malignancies treated?
- chemotherapy often only cure
What are specific chemotherapy drugs?
Act at specific stages of cell cycle:
- kills actively dividing cells
What are examples of cell cycle specific chemotherapy drugs?
G1 - vinblastine
S - methotrexate
S6 - mercaptopurine
S5 - fluorouracil
G2 - bleomycin, etoposide, topotecan, daunorubicin
M - vincristine, vinblastine, paclitaxel, docetaxel
What are non-specific chemotherapy drugs?
- kills resting cells and dividing cells
What are examples of non-specific chemotherapy drugs?
- cyclophosphamide
- chlorambucil
- cisplatin
- actinomycin-D
- L-asparaginase
What are the sites of actin of chemotherapy drugs?
- antimetabolites act on DNA synthesis
- alkylating agents act on DNA
- intercalating agents act on DNA transcription and duplication
- spindle poisons act on mitosis
Which drugs are directly acting?
- alkylating agents
- antimetabolites
- natural products
- miscellaneous (cisplatin, carboplatin)
Which drugs are natural products?
- antibiotics
- vinca alkaloids
- taxanes
- epipodophyllotoxins
- camptothecin analogs
- enzymes
- biological response modifiers
Which drugs are indirectly acting?
- corticosteroids
- eostrogens
- 5 alpha reductase inhibitors
- GnRH agonists
- Progestins
What are the classes of chemotherapy?
- alkylating agents
- anti-metabolites
- natural products
- hormones and antagonists
- miscellaneous agents
