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Anti-Cancer Drugs
The available anticancer drugs have distinct
mechanisms of action which may vary in their effects on different types
of normal and cancer cells. A single cure for cancer has
proved elusive since there is not a single type of cancer but as many as
100 different types of cancer. In addition, there are very few
demonstrable biochemical differences between cancerous cells and normal
cells. For this reason the effectiveness of many anticancer drugs is
limited by their toxicity to normal rapidly growing cells in the
intestinal and bone marrow areas. A final problem is that cancerous
cells which are initially suppressed by a specific drug may develop a
resistance to that drug. For this reason cancer chemotherapy may consist
of using several drugs in combination for varying lengths of time.
Cancer Chemotherapy:
Chemotherapy drugs, are sometimes feared because
of a patients concern about toxic effects. Their role is to slow
and hopefully halt the growth and spread of a cancer. There are three
goals associated with the use of the most commonly-used anticancer
agents.
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