The plateau in cytotoxic cancer drug discovery

An examination of the history of cytotoxic cancer drugs development suggests that this activity is now on a plateau. It is striking that there have been no new chemotype cytotoxic anticancer drugs discovered in the past twenty years, despite the massive national effort in this area. It has been estimated that only 40 to 50% of patients currently diagnosed as having cancer will have a five year survival of the disease. This survival rate has been climbing at less than five percent per decade. Our conclusion is that a greater effort in biological response modification is warranted if we are to significantly affect the plateau.