Novel oral chemotherapy agents

The development of anticancer drugs has conventionally focused on intravenous rather than oral regimens. Recently, interest in oral administration of chemotherapy has been stimulated by the discovery of oral fluoropyrimidines, which appear to possess at least an equivalent efficacy and the potential to reduce toxicity compared with intravenous therapies. Using rational drug design, several oral fluoropyrimidines have been developed, including capecitabine, UFT (tegafur and uracil), eniluracil plus oral 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), and S-1. In addition to the oral fluoropyrimidines, other novel agents available for potential oral administration include irinotecan and temozolomide.