INDEX neoplastic disease

In the treatment of human neoplastic diseases methotrexate has largely supplanted aminopterin in chemotherapy, due to the better therapeutic index of the former in experimental animals, although this superiority over (325) has not been conclusively demonstrated in man. 

In terms of pharmacokinetics, many host factors, such as the route of administration, the metabolism, the catabolism and clearance will considerably determine the anti neoplastic success of a drug. One major difficulty with the clinical effectiveness of chemotherapy of neoplastic diseases is the requirement that it kill malignant tumor cells at doses that allow cells in the patient s vital organs to survive so that the recovery can occur. In other words, it is to obtain a reasonably safe therapeutic index favoring introduction into clinical practice. 

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