ABSTRACT
As cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell proliferation, in the past drugs produced to combat it mainly focused on inhibiting cell division. Typically, such drugs cause damage to deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA), or hinder the cell cycle at some point, so that it becomes impossible to complete replication. Non-specific drugs that target dividing cells are chemotherapeutic agents. They are more likely to be effective at shrinking aggressive tumors, such as acute myelogenous leukemia, than slow-growing ones, such as prostate cancer. Chemotherapy is often used to shrink tumors before surgery, and to kill off any remaining tumor cells after surgery. In cases where the effects of chemotherapy are more grievous and blood stem cell reserves are severely depleted, bone marrow transplantation is an option. Although a cure is possible for some common tumors using chemotherapy, for most patients it offers a means of slowing down tumor growth or shrinking their size.
