As most of chemotherapeutic agents against cancer improves longevity and standard of living in patient and still they are in progress of further development, however they can always related with their side effects also. My concern is related to the general opinion among the research community as how they see this long journey of cancer chemotherapeutic development up till this day in context of either their success or as their failure, as still most of the cancers are not curable and still a large number of people don't give get proper medication (especially in developing countries)
chemotherapies have resulted in marked decreased incidences of cancer relapse and thus can be seen as a success. However, there is always room for improvement.
For breast cancer, the EBCTCG, Early breast cancer trialist collaborative group, has the best data. The group meets every 5 years to review data from global breast cancer trails.
In 2005, the group published the following statistics for breast cancer patient relapse with chemo:
For women under 50: Chemo reduced the risk of relapse by 30-37 %
For women over 50: relapse was reduced by 12 to 19 %.
Other cancers would most likely have similar results
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/breast/healthprofessional/page6#Section_519
In early stages of cancer when the number of cancer cells are few we can say SUCCESS, but in the late stages of the disease we can say just torture of the patient and wasting time.
Cancer therapies with chemotherapeutics (mostly in combination with radiotherapies,...) are of high benefit, in general.
The biggest problems are the effective targeting of tumor cells and to overcome the multi drug resistance. There are already existing possible ways to overcome those problems through passive and active targeting: nanotransporter for chemotherapeutics (i.e. PK1) , antibody based applications,... .
So, not the chemotherapeutics are the problem, but the understanding of tumors "communication network", like microenvironment, the hormonal impact and the role of tumor associated cells (i.e. fibroblasts, immune cells). A lot of work were done in those fields to enrich understanding,but there is also a lot of work to do.
My opinion is, that there is a need for synchronizing cancer cells or respectively to provoke a specific receptor expression, to get good targets for therapy.
chemotherapies have resulted in marked decreased incidences of cancer relapse and thus can be seen as a success. However, there is always room for improvement.
For breast cancer, the EBCTCG, Early breast cancer trialist collaborative group, has the best data. The group meets every 5 years to review data from global breast cancer trails.
In 2005, the group published the following statistics for breast cancer patient relapse with chemo:
For women under 50: Chemo reduced the risk of relapse by 30-37 %
For women over 50: relapse was reduced by 12 to 19 %.
Other cancers would most likely have similar results
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/breast/healthprofessional/page6#Section_519
The limitation of most chemotherapy regimens is the toxicity for normal highly dividing cells, like myeloid progenitors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBLnL4XA6fc
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/cam4.91/asset/cam491.pdf;jsessionid=7C8A742C8A78A7EA04809A7FCEB62CCC.f02t04?v=1&t=hpvh4v8v&s=b6458cd1a6e5dfab92ce72914d59a2f83b42887e
Successful management of chemotherapy in a stage IV ovarian cancer patient with chronic renal failure
Article Successful management of chemotherapy in a stage IV ovarian ...
limitation
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cancer/expert-answers/chemotherapy-side-effects/faq-20058319
https://www.verywellhealth.com/chemotherapy-for-lung-cancer-2249321
https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-general/treatment/chemotherapy/how-chemotherapy-works
https://www.webmd.com/cancer/chemotherapy-what-to-expect
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Why_is_the_success_rate_of_chemotherapy_very_low_And_is_it_possible_to_improve_that
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