Definitions
Adjuvant chemotherapy
Chemotherapy to treat residual disease following surgery or radiation.
Combination chemotherapy
Use of two or more drugs given simultaneously or in sequence in an effort to achieve the best therapeutic response within a range of toxicity tolerated by the host.
Principles of Combination Chemotherapy:
- Two or more agents have greater response than when used alone
- Act in different phases of cell cycle
- Vary toxicities
- Each drug has independent action
- Synergistic effects to overcome drug resistance
Multimodal therapy
Combination of one or more types of therapy., such as surgery, radiation, biotherapy, stem cell transplant
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy
Chemotherapy used preoperatively to reduce tumor bulk to make it more accessible for surgical resection and to provide additional therapy for micrometastases.
Sanctuary Therapy
Administration of chemotherapy to a site that is not accessible by systemic therapy and is known to have a high risk of metastasis. Eg. intrathecal chemotherapy to prevent or treat CNS leukemia.
Pharmocodynamics (PD)
Concentration of available drug
“How a drug produces a response”
Pharmacokinetics (PK)
Refers to the movement (kinetics) or drugs (pharm) in the body. “How a body processes drugs”
Study of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion
PK and PD are used to develop drug dosing and schedules to maximize tumor cell kill and minimize toxicity.
