[Curability of malignant neoplasms: value and limitations of chemotherapy]

Cancer chemotherapy was purely palliative until the early sixties. Tumor cures have been since obtained, first in malignant trophoblastoma and Burkitt's lymphoma, and more recently in Hodgkin's disease, diffuse histiocytic lymphoma, acute lymphocytic leukemia in children, Wilms's tumor and osteosarcoma. Preliminary data are suggestive of tumor cures in testicular teratomas and, possibly, in small cell carcinoma of the lung. Five patients with trophoblastoma, Hodgkin's disease, melanoma, chronic myelocytic leukemia and anaplastic carcinoma of the lung are briefly presented, all without evidence of tumor relapse 3 years or more after chemotherapy. Theoretical bases for improvement of the curative effect of cancer chemotherapy are discussed, including the development of new agents, and new pharmacological problems concerning drug interactions, complexes of drugs with macromolecules or immunoglobulins and liposomes are considered.