Principles of chemotherapy

Cytotoxic chemotherapy is the principal means by which children with cancer are cured. Paediatric use began with antimetabolites such as aminopterin to induce remission in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 1948. Sixty-one years later the majority of children with cancer receive chemotherapy. This article describes the development of the paediatric cooperative study groups producing trials in the U.K., reviews the common chemotherapy drugs in use in childhood cancer treatment and describes the principles of the chemotherapy pathway in cancer treatment as applied to children.