Chemotherapy

Every two years, the International Society of Chemotherapy convenes to assess advances in drug treatment for infections and for cancer. The gatherings keep growing as drug therapy spreads into fresh fields. Some areas, such as cephalosporins, penicillins and combined cancer regimens, have moved quickly, while parasitology has advanced more gradually. Researchers continue to grapple with drug resistance and harmful side effects, and many are seeking new compounds that lower damage to the host while keeping their power against tumours.

Better survival rates in cancer treatment, particularly for leukaemia, have brought more serious infections among patients receiving these therapies. Attention has also turned to how drugs move through healthy and diseased bodies, including absorption, bioavailability and interactions between medications. Long-standing bacterial threats such as gonorrhoea and tuberculosis, among the first infections to respond to chemotherapy, remain major global health problems and are being tackled with new agents and approaches.

This volume collects the proceedings from a congress where roughly 1,000 papers were presented. Because not every paper could be printed, the editors chose to represent most of the current progress in the field.