The decade of the 1990s will see an increasing emphasis on the modulation of chemotherapeutic drug selectivity and in the 'lock and key' approach to new targets to control malignant proliferation. The contents of this volume appropriately reflect these scientific undercurrents. An emerging powerful tool of molecular pharmacology is described by Holcenberg and Wu. Manipulation of genetic expression by modification of messenger RNA is now within our reach, and the basic concepts are suc cinctly reviewed as a primer on future biochemical engineering of new anti cancer molecules. Another concept...

Where do you begin to look for a recent, authoritative article on the diagnosis or management ofa particular malignancy? The few general onco- logy textbooks are generally out of date. Single papers in specialized journals are informative but seldom comprehensive; these are more often prelimi- nary reports on a very limited number of patients. Certain general journals frequently publish good indepth reviews of cancer topics, and published symposium lectures are often the best overviews available. Unfortunately, these reviews and supplements appear sporadically, and the reader can nev- er be...

Where do you begin to look for a recent, authoritative article on the diagnosis or management of a particular malignancy? The few general oncology textbooks are generally out of date. Single papers in specialized journals are informative but seldom comprehensive; these are more often preliminary reports on a very limited number of patients. Certain general journals frequently publish good indepth reviews of cancer topics, and published symposium lectures are often the best overviews available. Unfor tunately, these reviews and supplements appear sporadically, and the reader can never be sure...

Neoplastic disease confined to the liver is an important worldwide problem. In the industrialized nations, metastatic disease of the most common cancers involves the liver in upwards of 50% of cases. Primary hepatic tumors are virtually epidemic in most third world countries and certainly constitute one of the ten most common causes of cancer deaths on a worldwide scale. Amazingly, little specific attention has been devoted to therapeutic approaches of liver and biliary tumors until recently. We attribute this apparent lack of interest to the uniformly poor progno- sis of patients so...

Concepts, Mechanisms, and New Targets for Chemotherapy describes new interconnections between rationally designed and empirically discovered compounds. One route that has not been travelled previously is that of protein kinase C inhibition. This pathway may be exploited to give potent inhibitors, such as the bryostatins, now in clinical trial. A summary is given of the current status of topoisomerase, focusing on recent clinical advances with camptothecin analogs based on connecting empiricism with concepts of drug selectivity.
Modification of existing therapies based on the...

The methodology of drug development has been the subject of extensive dis- cussion by a relatively small group of individuals in industry and government who have been intimately concerned with the identification and study of new anticancer drugs. The Chemotherapy Program of the National Cancer In- stitute has represented the major focus of initial efforts in drug development, as summarized in the historical perspective presented in chapter 1 and its references. It is no coincidence that the Chemotherapy Program was the origin of the Division of Cancer Treatment, a government entity that has...

Experimental chemotherapy continues to be at the forefront of cancer thera peutics. Topics covered in the preceding volume on cancer chemotherapy in this series such as study of drugs by alkaline elution, the development of the antimetabolite tiazofurin, and the treatment of germ cell tumors have become informative references to current experimentalists and practitioners. In even earlier volumes, reviews of the platinum compounds, anthracyclines, and osteosarcoma represent topics associated with such rapid progress requiring a look back to provide the appropriate perspective. Similarly, we...

As in CANCER CHEMOTHERAPY 1, this volume brings to the reader highlights in three different areas of cancer therapeutics: new concepts and models; drug classes; and clinical settings. Topics were chosen because of their timeliness or probable current impact in cancer treatment. Authors were selected on the basis of their ability to provide a critical overview of specific subjects and their involvement in original work. I shall review the aims of this second volume, and then elaborate on the scope of its con tents. The principal aim of the volumes on cancer chemotherapy in the' Cancer...

The decade of the 1990s will see an increasing emphasis on the modulation of chemotherapeutic drug selectivity and in the 'lock and key' approach to new targets to control malignant proliferation. The contents of this volume appropriately reflect these scientific undercurrents. An emerging powerful tool of molecular pharmacology is described by Holcenberg and Wu. Manipulation of genetic expression by modification of messenger RNA is now within our reach, and the basic concepts are suc cinctly reviewed as a primer on future biochemical engineering of new anti cancer molecules. Another concept...

Experimental chemotherapy continues to be at the forefront of cancer thera peutics. Topics covered in the preceding volume on cancer chemotherapy in this series such as study of drugs by alkaline elution, the development of the antimetabolite tiazofurin, and the treatment of germ cell tumors have become informative references to current experimentalists and practitioners. In even earlier volumes, reviews of the platinum compounds, anthracyclines, and osteosarcoma represent topics associated with such rapid progress requiring a look back to provide the appropriate perspective. Similarly, we...