1. Use Alkylating Agents and Nitrosoureas
If your doctor wants to treat your cancer using drugs that attack tumors during all phases of cell growth, you'll likely be introduced to alkylating agents and nitrosoureas. These drugs meddle with the enzymes and DNA of cancer cells, inhibiting their replication.
Nitrosoureas differ from alkylating agents in that they have the unique ability to reach the brain through the blood. For this reason, they have applications in the treatment of brain cancer. You'll most commonly see alkylating agents prescribed to treat leukemia, lymphoma and lung, breast and ovarian cancers.
2. Damage Cancer Cells With Antimetabolites
Chemotherapy drugs in the antimetabolite class act by preventing the proper growth of RNA and DNA in the cancer cell. Unlike alkylating agents and nitrosoureas, your doctor will use antimetabolites to attack the cancer cells during the so-called "S phase" of cell growth. You'll most commonly encounter antimetabolite chemotherapy if you have breast, ovarian or intestinal cancer.
3. Prevent Cancer Cell DNA Replication With Topoisomerase Inhibitors
Topoisomerase inhibitors aim to prevent the growth of cancer tumors by interfering with important enzymes called topoisomerases. These enzymes play a crucial role in the replication of the cancer's DNA from one cell to the next, and they're often used in the treatment of leukemia.
4. Target Tumors With Special Antibiotics
Your doctor can also use a unique class of antibiotics known as anthracyclines to interfere with proper cancer cell DNA replication during all phases of cell growth. Before you're approved for these drugs, though, your doctor will determine if your heart is healthy enough to handle them. These antibiotics can adversely affect the health of your heart muscle.
If your doctor does approve you for anthraclycline treatment, you'll have your maximum lifetime dosage allowance capped and strictly observed. You'll have to change over to another form of chemotherapy once you're taken as many anthraclycines as your doctor sees fit to allow.
5. Treat Certain Cancers With Corticosteroids
Your cancer treatment team may elect to introduce a regimen of corticosteroids to your treatment program. These drugs, derived from natural hormonal sources, are usually used in combination with other chemotherapy drugs to slow down the spread of your cancer.
Doctors suspect that your body's naturally produced hormones actually enable the growth of certain cancers, so these drugs seek to counterbalance that action by altering your hormone levels. Your doctor may also introduce you to different, rarer types of chemotherapy drugs and secondary drug treatments used to control the side effects of your cancer treatments. In the future, immune therapy, targeted therapies and sex hormone therapies may form the backbone of a new branch of cancer drugs.
