Emerging drug treatments for solid tumours.

A number of novel anticancer agents have emerged during the past few decades, which show high activity in preclinical tumour models and promising activity in early trials in patients with solid tumours. Most of the agents have novel and unique mechanisms of action, and show activity against a variety of malignancies, including tumours which are notoriously resistant to systemic treatment. Recently, our understanding of the molecular basis of cancer has increased considerably. This is reflected in the development of agents that are directed at well defined molecular targets, such as the mitotic tubulin/microtubuli system (taxoids), nuclear enzymes (topoisomerase I inhibitors) and cell signal transduction pathways (protein kinase C inhibitors). In addition, significant advances have been made in our understanding of mechanisms of toxicity, especially of cisplatin. This has resulted in the development of agents modulating cisplatin toxicity, among which amifostine (WR-2721) is one of the most promising. The outlined emerging drug therapies with novel anticancer agents and treatment modalities will, it is hoped, result in increased response rates of advanced tumours, longer disease-free and total survival and better palliative care.