Skip to main content
NCBI home page
The BMJ logoLink to The BMJ
. 1994 May 14;308(6939):1288–1290. doi: 10.1136/bmj.308.6939.1288

Cancer chemotherapy: identifying novel anticancer drugs.

J Carmichael 1
PMCID: PMC2540168  PMID: 8205025

Abstract

There are now around 60 cytotoxic drugs licensed for use in cancer therapy in the United Kingdom. For certain malignancies such as childhood cancers, haematological malignancies, and germ cell tumours chemotherapy has been pivotal to the substantial improvement in therapeutic outcome achieved over the past 10 years. In contrast, improvements in the systemic management of adult solid tumours have been less dramatic. There is a clear and urgent need for new, more effective drugs for lung, breast, and colorectal malignancies. This paper examines the processes in identifying, developing, and evaluating new drugs with anticancer activity.

Full text

PDF
1288

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Akiyama T., Ishida J., Nakagawa S., Ogawara H., Watanabe S., Itoh N., Shibuya M., Fukami Y. Genistein, a specific inhibitor of tyrosine-specific protein kinases. J Biol Chem. 1987 Apr 25;262(12):5592–5595. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Broggini M., Ponti M., Ottolenghi S., D'Incalci M., Mongelli N., Mantovani R. Distamycins inhibit the binding of OTF-1 and NFE-1 transfactors to their conserved DNA elements. Nucleic Acids Res. 1989 Feb 11;17(3):1051–1059. doi: 10.1093/nar/17.3.1051. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cantley L. C., Auger K. R., Carpenter C., Duckworth B., Graziani A., Kapeller R., Soltoff S. Oncogenes and signal transduction. Cell. 1991 Jan 25;64(2):281–302. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(91)90639-g. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Carmichael J., DeGraff W. G., Gazdar A. F., Minna J. D., Mitchell J. B. Evaluation of a tetrazolium-based semiautomated colorimetric assay: assessment of chemosensitivity testing. Cancer Res. 1987 Feb 15;47(4):936–942. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Fidler I. J., Balch C. M. The biology of cancer metastasis and implications for therapy. Curr Probl Surg. 1987 Mar;24(3):129–209. doi: 10.1016/0011-3840(87)90002-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gescher A., Dale I. L. Protein kinase C--a novel target for rational anti-cancer drug design? Anticancer Drug Des. 1989 Aug;4(2):93–105. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Heidelberger C. Fluorinated pyrimidines. Prog Nucleic Acid Res Mol Biol. 1965;4:1–50. doi: 10.1016/s0079-6603(08)60783-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hélène C., Toulmé J. J. Specific regulation of gene expression by antisense, sense and antigene nucleic acids. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1990 Jun 21;1049(2):99–125. doi: 10.1016/0167-4781(90)90031-v. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Mercer W. E., Shields M. T., Lin D., Appella E., Ullrich S. J. Growth suppression induced by wild-type p53 protein is accompanied by selective down-regulation of proliferating-cell nuclear antigen expression. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1991 Mar 1;88(5):1958–1962. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.5.1958. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Miller E., Goldacre M., Pugh S., Colville A., Farrington P., Flower A., Nash J., MacFarlane L., Tettmar R. Risk of aseptic meningitis after measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine in UK children. Lancet. 1993 Apr 17;341(8851):979–982. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(93)91069-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Nieminen U., Peltola H., Syrjälä M. T., Mäkipernaa A., Kekomäki R. Acute thrombocytopenic purpura following measles, mumps and rubella vaccination. A report on 23 patients. Acta Paediatr. 1993 Mar;82(3):267–270. doi: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1993.tb12657.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Peltola H. Mumps vaccination and meningitis. Lancet. 1993 Apr 17;341(8851):994–995. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(93)91077-y. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Poon M. A., O'Connell M. J., Moertel C. G., Wieand H. S., Cullinan S. A., Everson L. K., Krook J. E., Mailliard J. A., Laurie J. A., Tschetter L. K. Biochemical modulation of fluorouracil: evidence of significant improvement of survival and quality of life in patients with advanced colorectal carcinoma. J Clin Oncol. 1989 Oct;7(10):1407–1418. doi: 10.1200/JCO.1989.7.10.1407. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Rosenberg S. A., Aebersold P., Cornetta K., Kasid A., Morgan R. A., Moen R., Karson E. M., Lotze M. T., Yang J. C., Topalian S. L. Gene transfer into humans--immunotherapy of patients with advanced melanoma, using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes modified by retroviral gene transduction. N Engl J Med. 1990 Aug 30;323(9):570–578. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199008303230904. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Rowinsky E. K., Cazenave L. A., Donehower R. C. Taxol: a novel investigational antimicrotubule agent. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1990 Aug 1;82(15):1247–1259. doi: 10.1093/jnci/82.15.1247. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Rozengurt E. Early signals in the mitogenic response. Science. 1986 Oct 10;234(4773):161–166. doi: 10.1126/science.3018928. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Schwartsmann G., Wanders J., Koier I. J., Franklin H. R., Dalesio O., Hornstra H. W., van Glabbeke M., Renard J., Van Oosterom A. T., Kaye S. B. EORTC New Drug Development Office coordinating and monitoring programme for phase I and II trials with new anticancer agents. Eur J Cancer. 1991;27(9):1162–1168. doi: 10.1016/0277-5379(91)90317-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Selby P., Robertson B. Measurement of quality of life in patients with cancer. Cancer Surv. 1987;6(3):521–543. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Swinnen L. J., Ellis N. K., Erickson L. C. Inhibition of cis-diammine-1,1-cyclobutane dicarboxylatoplatinum(II)-induced DNA interstand cross-link removal and potentiation of cis-diammine-1,1-cyclobutane dicarboxylatoplatinum(II) cytotoxicity by hydroxyurea and 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine. Cancer Res. 1991 Apr 15;51(8):1984–1989. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Williams G. T., Smith C. A. Molecular regulation of apoptosis: genetic controls on cell death. Cell. 1993 Sep 10;74(5):777–779. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(93)90457-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Wu C. H., Wilson J. M., Wu G. Y. Targeting genes: delivery and persistent expression of a foreign gene driven by mammalian regulatory elements in vivo. J Biol Chem. 1989 Oct 15;264(29):16985–16987. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from BMJ : British Medical Journal are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES