The curability of advanced cancers with chemotherapy

The tremendous progress that has been made in the chemotherapy of malignant diseases since the early 1950's has enabled the cure of a significant number of cancers such as chloriocarcinoma, Burkitt's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the acute leukaemias, testicular carcinoma, and many childhood cancers such as rhabdomyosarcoma, Wilm's tumor, Ewing's sarcoma, ovarian cancer, and retinoblastoma. As a result, the mortality from cancers has dropped by 15% for persons under the age of 45 years and even more for those under 30 years of age. Many other metastatic cancers can now be successfully controlled with chemotherapy and, ultimately, more will be added to the growing list of curable cancers. The chemotherapeutic agents responsible for the cures of some cancers include asparaginase, actinomycin D, Adriamycin, bleomycin, cisplatin, cyclophosphamide, cytosine arabinoside, 5-fluorouracil, 6-mercaptopurine, methotrexate, nitrogen mustard, prednisone, procarbazine, and vincristine. The discovery of new effective drugs such as AMSA and anthracenedione promises to improve the success rates obtained with present therapy. Chemotherapy is indicated for every patient who has metastatic cancer, since virtually every patient can receive some palliation from such therapy, while for some patients chemotherapy holds the promise of prolongation of life or even cure.