A Rationale for Synchrony Strategies in Chemotherapy,

A synchrony strategy in the treatment of a tumor consists of two parts. First is the introduction of an agent which blocks the tumor cells at some point in the cell cycle. Second is the release of this block until the partially synchronized tumor cell population arrives in a wave at a vulnerable part of the cell cycle where it is treated with a phase specific agent. The effectiveness of a therapeutic regime against cancer is determined by the amount of damage produced in the neoplastic tissues versus the amount of damage produced in the limiting normal tissues. The limiting normal tissues are those which first express the damage done by the regime and cause a limitation of the treatment. The treatment-limiting cell populations in much of chemotherapy are those with a short cycle time roughly twenty-four hours in the bone marrow and the gastro-intestinal tract.