Antineoplastic

Antineoplastic agents, also known as anticancer drugs or antineoplastic drugs, are medications used to treat malignant tumors. These drugs work through various mechanisms to kill or inhibit cancer cells to achieve the goal of treating malignant tumors. Based on their pharmacological actions, antineoplastic drugs can be divided into cytotoxic drugs and non-cytotoxic drugs, with the former primarily consisting of DNA-toxic drugs and the latter mainly comprising molecularly targeted antineoplastic drugs. Commonly used antineoplastic drugs include cisplatin, doxorubicin, paclitaxel, and imatinib.

Traditional cytotoxic drugs, due to their lack of sufficient selectivity for cancer cells, cause varying degrees of damage to normal tissue cells while targeting cancer cells. However, with advancements in tumor molecular biology and translational medicine, antineoplastic drugs have evolved from traditional cytotoxic drugs to non-cytotoxic drugs. Non-cytotoxic drugs are characterized by high selectivity and a high therapeutic index, offering significant clinical advantages.