Cytostatic and reverse-transforming therapies of cancer - a brief review and future prospects.

Cytostatic cancer therapies are defined as those which retard cancer growth by intervening selectively in the disordered control mechanisms responsible for malignant behavior, without producing direct cytotoxicity. A number of possible approaches to cytostatic therapy are now under investigation and are briefly reviewed here - cyclic AMP congeners and promoters, prostaglandin precursors, thioproline, benzaldehyde, retinoids, interferon, chalones, antineoplastons, protease inhibitors, polar solvents. Suggestions for the further development of cytostatic therapies are offered, and a role for cytostatic therapy within a broad global concept of cancer therapy is proposed.