VCP 421: Medicine Section

CHEMOTHERAPY

Azathioprine (Imuran)

• Immune mediated diseases are conditions where the immune system becomes inappropriately active and damages the body. Azathioprine is a common medication used in the treatment of immune mediated disease. It is a drug to respect and use wisely.

Chlorambucil (Leukeran®)

• A drug used most commonly for chemotherapy to treat cancer, chlorambucil is also used to treat some immune mediated diseases such as pemphigus, feline infectious peritonitous, or inflammatory bowel disease.

Cisplatin

• The treatment of cancer is scary and the word chemotherapy conjures up unpleasant images. But what are the facts of these powerful medications? Cisplatinum is an important weapon against cancer.

Cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan)

• Because of its ability to kill rapidly dividing, cyclophosphamide has been used most successfully in treating cancer and immune mediated disease.

Doxorubicin (Adriamycin, Rubex)

• Doxorubicin is a type of anti-cancer drug called an anthracycline glycoside. It works by impairing DNA synthesis, a crucial feature of cell division, and thus is able to target rapidly dividing cells. Doxorubicin is a very serious anti-cancer medication with definite potential to do great harm as well as great good.

L-Asparaginase (Elspar)

• The battle against cancer must exploit biological differences between cancer cells and normal cells. Asparagine is an especially important amino acid for lymphatic cancer cells and asparaginase is able to destroy it in a way that hurts cancer cells only. L-Asparaginase is a helpful chemotherapy agent, especially in the treatment of lymphatic cancers.

Lomustine

• Lomustine is a member of the nitrosourea class of chemotherapy agents that act by binding DNA to other DNA strands or to protein in such a way that the DNA double helix strand cannot replicate. In addition to essentially tying DNA up, lomustine generates a by-product that prevents normal DNA function.

Vincristine (Oncovin, Vincasar)

• Vincristine is chiefly used as one drug in multi-drug combination protocols against lymphoid and round cell tumors.