Week 12: lessons 34, 35, 36 Anticancer drugs

It is estimated that 25 percent of the population of the United States will face a diagnosis of cancer during their lifetime, with 1.3 million new cancer patients diagnosed each year. Less than a quarter of these patients will be cured solely by surgery and/or local radiation. Most of the remain- der will receive systemic chemotherapy at some time during their illness. In a small fraction (approximately 10 percent) of patients with cancer rep- resenting selected neoplasms, the chemotherapy will result in a cure or a prolonged remission. However, in most cases, the drug therapy will produce only a regression of the disease, and complications and/or relapse may eventually lead to death. Thus, the overall 5-year survival rate for cancer patients is about 65 percent, ranking cancer second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of mortality