Clinical concepts derived from animal chemotherapy studies.

Animal chemotherapy studies have contributed significantly to clinical concepts in tumor therapy. Preclinical investigations have led to the discovery of new drugs and have demonstrated that it is possible to cure advanced metastatic neoplasia. A fundamental clinical concept stemming from animal chemotherapy studies is that increased selectivity and improved therapeutic effectiveness of antitumor agents may result from appropriate pharmacologic, biochemical, and biologic manipulation of the host-tumor drug relationship. Clinically important factors that may increase antitumor drug selectivity are reviewed and pertinent studies in animal model systems are cited.