Publisher's Synopsis
In this year's annual, significant new work is described in both preclinical and clinical studies of biological and chemical agents used to treat cancer. Mechanisms of resistance to classical antitumor drugs such as methotrexate, natural products and alkylating agents can now be targeted for development of new agents and in efforts to modulate resistance in patients. In particular, transport processes appear to play key roles in models of resistance to anticancer drugs, relevant genes have been cloned and sequenced, and key proteins have been characterized. In the clinic, new active drugs, particularly taxol, have awakened great interest, and the range of uses of adjuvant regimens in node-negative breast cancer and colon cancer continues to expand. Important new biologicals, such as the bone marrow colony-stimulating factors, have won a clear role in high-dose chemotherapy regimens. Moreover, central to the effort to improve therapeutic results is the continuous and growing interplay of ideas between basic biology and clinical medicine related to cancer.
