© 2005 Oxford University Press
EDITORIAL |
Cytotoxins and Cancer Immunotherapy: The Dance of the Macabre?
Correspondence to: Carmen J. Allegra, MD, Network for Medical Communication and Research, North Potomac, MD 20878 (e-mail: callegra@nmcr.com) or Richard W. Childs, MD, Hematology Branch, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH Bldg. 10/CRC, Rm. 3-5140, 10 Center Dr., MSC 1202, Bethesda MD 20892 (e-mail: childsr@nih.gov).
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The combined mortality rate for patients with breast or colorectal cancer in the United States approaches 100 000 individuals annually or approximately 270 individuals every day (1). This astounding mortality rate needs to be rapidly and positively addressed through multiple complementary efforts that must include the development of more specific, more effective, and less toxic therapeutic strategies. The present management of patients with advanced breast and colorectal cancers involves the use of broadly cytotoxic agents applied either sequentially or in various combinations and, generally, in concert with biologic agents. Although these strategies have met with laudable success, they unfortunately do not result in curing patients with disease that has spread beyond the practical limits of surgical intervention. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop more effective and better tolerated systemic