Drug Interactions in the Treatment of Neoplastic Disease

Abstract

Some of the recent advances in the treatment of malignant diseases by antineoplastic agents can be attributed to the use of combinations of cytotoxic drugs rather than to the use of single chemotherapeutic agents. There are often benefits to be gained by using two or more drugs together. But not every drug combination is necessarily beneficial, and the risk of undesirable, rather than desirable, interactions is increased by the multiplicity of drugs which may be used. The multi-drug—multimodality approach to malignancy has increased survival times for some tumours, but the probability of adverse interactions taking place with anaesthetics and immunotherapeutic agents, and the possibility that drugs may be radiosensitisers or even show an increased toxicity when used in conjunction with radiotherapy, are the possible consequences of combined modality therapy.