Lis Christopher G, Grutsch James F, Wood Patricia, You Mark, Rich Ivan, Hrushesky William J M
Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Midwestern Regional Medical Center, Zion, IL 60099, USA.
Integr Cancer Ther. 2003 Jun;2(2):105-11. doi: 10.1177/1534735403002002002.
Despite the many innovations that have occurred in cancer treatment, the age-specific mortality for most adult tumors has remained stable during the past 30 years. There have been clinically significant improvements in the outcomes of young and middle-aged patients, yet the vast majority of cancer patients are more than 50 years of age, among whom we observe few improvements in clinical outcomes. Clearly, many of today's cytotoxic agents have been shown to be effective in-vitro and in animal model systems; however, few have proved efficacious in dramatically improving survival outcomes in adult cancer. There is now increasing evidence to suggest that the administration of cytotoxic agents, at the appropriate circadian phase, can significantly increase the therapeutic index of current cancer therapies.
尽管癌症治疗领域出现了许多创新，但在过去30年中，大多数成人肿瘤的年龄特异性死亡率一直保持稳定。年轻和中年患者的治疗结果有了临床上的显著改善，但绝大多数癌症患者年龄超过50岁，在这些患者中，我们观察到临床结果几乎没有改善。显然，如今许多细胞毒性药物已在体外和动物模型系统中显示出有效性；然而，很少有药物被证明能显著提高成人癌症的生存结果。现在有越来越多的证据表明，在适当的昼夜节律阶段给予细胞毒性药物，可以显著提高当前癌症治疗的治疗指数。
