[Chemotherapy for digestive carcinomas. General principles (author's transl)]

A review of the basic principles concerning the biology, and in particular the kinetics, of the malignant cell, serves as a basis for the study of the main drugs which make up the current arsenal of the chemotherapist and to define their mode of action. The indications of chemotherapy in digestive carcinomas are then outlined, drawing the distinction between palliative chemotherapy used in tumours with spread, whether operable or inoperable, and adjuvant chemotherapy which may be indicated for certain carcinomas resected in a macroscopically satisfactory manner, but where the risk of recurrence is greater than 50%.