Anticancer Drugs Principles Quiz

Chemotherapy Goals and Principles

• The ultimate goal of chemotherapy is to cure cancer.
• Combination drug chemotherapy is more successful than single-drug treatment because it allows for a lower dose of each drug, reducing toxicity and increasing effectiveness.

Cancer Treatment Outcomes

• Only 20-30% of cancer patients will be cured by surgery and/or local radiation.
• If a cure is not attainable, the goal of chemotherapy becomes alleviation of symptoms and avoidance of life-threatening toxicity.

Anticancer Drugs

• Most currently available anticancer drugs do not specifically recognize neoplastic cells, which is why they can be toxic to normal cells.
• Chemotherapeutic agents effective against replicating cells are classified as cycle-specific agents.

Cell Cycle and Chemotherapy

• The G0 phase of the cell cycle is characterized by cells being relatively inactive metabolically and resistant to most chemotherapeutic drugs.
• The G2 phase follows DNA replication in the cell cycle.

Chemotherapeutic Agents

• One category of chemotherapeutic agents is structurally related to normal compounds that exist within the cell and interfere with the availability of normal purine or pyrimidine nucleotide precursors.

Cancer Symptoms and Treatment

• A sore that does not heal is a warning sign for cancer.
• Debulking in cancer treatment aims to reduce the size of a tumor to make it more manageable for other treatments.

Adverse Effects and Mortality

• Common adverse effects associated with chemotherapy include nausea, vomiting, hair loss, and fatigue.
• Infections are the second leading cause of mortality after cancer.

Test your knowledge of anticancer drugs and principles of cancer chemotherapy with this quiz. Explore the key concepts related to cancer treatment and the use of systemic chemotherapy.