Preventive Oncology and Diagnostic Cancer

Anticancer drug

Anticancer drug is also popularly known as antineoplastic drug. These are the drugs that are effective in the treatment of malignant, or cancerous, disease. There are several classifications of anticancer drugs like, alkylating agents, antimetabolites, natural products, and hormones. Also, there are a number of drugs that don't fall in those classes but that show anticancer activity and can be used in the treatment of malignant disease. The term chemotherapy frequently is identified with the use of anticancer drugs, although it more accurately refers to the use of chemical compounds to treat disease generally. One of the first drugs that was used clinically in modern medicine for the treatment of cancer was the alkylating agent mechlorethamine, a nitrogen mustard that in the 1940s was found to be effective in treating lymphomas.