Cancer, treatment using derivatives

C4H4N2O2. Colourless crystalline powder, turning brown at 280 C and melting at 338 C (decomp.). Uracil is a constituent of ribose nucleic acid. Used as a diuretic and derivatives have pharmaceutical importance. 5-Fluorouracil is used in cancer treatment. 

The development of so-called photodynamic therapy uses lasers for treatment of cancer. The patient is injected with a substance called hematoporphyrin derivative [68335-15-9] which is preferentially localized in cancerous tissues. The patient is later irradiated with laser light, often with a dye laser at a wavelength around 630 nm. The light energy catalyticaHy photooxidizes the hematoporphyrin derivative, releasing materials which kill the nearby cancerous tissue. Normal tissue which did not retain the chemical is not harmed. Photodynamic therapy offers promise as a new form of cancer treatment. 

The first clinical trials were performed in the 1970 s using a sodium salt derivative with an open E-ting (Fig. 1). However, the clinical efficacy was limited and severe bladder toxicity led to the termination of the clinical trials. The poor efficacy of the camptothecin sodium salt in those clinical trials was probably due to the fact that the open E-ring form of camptothecin (carboxylate derivative) is inactive as a Topi inhibitor. Following the identification of Topi as a target of camptothecin, water-soluble derivatives were produced by the pharmaceutical industry. Two of these water-soluble derivatives have been approved by the FDA for cancer treatment in the early 2000s topotecan and irinotecan. 

Natural products have been identified as the active principle of herbs and extracts used in folk medicine [1], The importance of natural products in the pharmaceutical industry has continued to the present day and is reflected by the fact that close to half of the best selling pharmaceuticals are either natural products (e.g. cyclosporine, Taxol, FK 506) or derivatives thereof [3]. In high throughput screening processes performed by the pharmaceutical industry natural product extracts exhibit a hit rate which is estimated to be substantially higher than the hit rate of random libraries from combinatorial chemistry. Natural products such as epothilones, discodermolide or ecteinascidin are promising clinical candidates for future cancer treatment. 

A useful derivative of this compound is 5-fluorouracil that is used as a topical ointment in the treatment of some types of skin cancer and other skin diseases. One preparation of the compound is by the fluorination of uracil with XeF2 ... 

The platinum derivatives, cisplatin, carboplatin, and oxaliplatin are anticancer agents with remarkable usefulness in cancer treatment (see Table 124-14). Recognition of cisplatin s cytotoxic activity was... 

In further confirmation, there are antibiotics prominently listed in Appendices E and E of Hoffman (1999) as inhibitors for enzymes involved in DNA and RNA processes. With regard to cancer treatment, however, a search of Medline indicates that most antibiotics are used against bacterial infections incurred during cancer treatment. An exception involves studies at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center of the University of Texas, located in Houston. These studies utilized actinomycin D and doxorubicin, both said to be known anticancer agents, in conjunction with the mitotic inhibitors vinblastine and Taxol. (The latter two are from plant extracts, and inhibit cell division or mitosis. The first-mentioned is derived from the Madagascar periwinkle [as is another alkaloid called vincristine], the latter from the yew tree of the... 

The prefix thio- implies sulfur in the molecular structure. Cyanates are compounds derived from cyanic add [HOCN]. There is a strong similarity with cyanides, as derived from hydrogen cyanide [HCN]. These would seem to be a parallel here with laetrile, or amygdalin, as used in cancer treatment.)... 

Urine has been used as a medicine from ancient times, and from it are derived some of today s useful drugs, including the antineoplastons used in Burzynski s method of cancer treatment (Moss, 1992, p. 361). The principal chemical in urine aside from water is urea. And urea has apparently been used successfully as a cancer treatment, notably by the locahzed injection of an aqueous urea solution. 

Most people do not realize that many prescription medications are created from similar ingredients and that approximately 25% of all drugs used today are derived from herbs (Greenwald, 1998). Furthermore, many prescription and OTC medications adapt and freely utilize a herbal base in their composition. Aspirin is derived from the bark of the white willow tree, and there is a cancer treatment medication known as Taxol that... 

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