What is Metronomic Chemotherapy?
Toxic effects are significant hurdles in conventional chemotherapy treatments.
A new modality of drug administration called “metronomic chemotherapy” has emerged and can avoid problems caused by traditional chemotherapy regimens.
Metronomic chemotherapy uses frequent administration of conventional chemotherapy at very low doses to target cells in tumors. The main advantages are:
- Minimal adverse effects
- Rare chance of developing acquired drug resistance.
How is Metronomic Chemotherapy Given?
Cyclophosphamide, piroxicam, and frusemide are the most common drugs used in metronomic therapy. These are taken orally at home. Before starting metronomic chemotherapy, baseline data is required to assess the malignancy and overall health. Measurements of existing tumors are taken by examination of a visible tumor outside the body, radiography, or ultrasound for internal tumors.
In this video, Dr. André of the well-known E-cancer program explains the benefits of low-dose metronomic chemotherapy.
Metronomic Therapy Side Effects
The most common metronomic chemotherapy side effects may be mild nausea or vomiting, mild to moderate anemia, neutropenia, and some fatigue.
Research on Metronomic Chemotherapy
Metronomic chemotherapy is an effective and low-cost treatment of several types of tumors. Here is some of the latest research:
> Metronomic Therapy for Breast Cancer
Metronomic administration of oral chemotherapy is a promising treatment strategy for some patients with Metastatic Breast Cancer and inhibits tumor progression via multiple mechanisms of action.
> Head and Neck
Oral metronomic chemotherapy is non-inferior to intravenous cisplatin with respect to overall survival and is associated with fewer adverse events.
> Ovarian
In summary, based on the clinical responses obtained and the low toxicity of the treatment, metronomic chemotherapy and drug repurposing are options to be taken into account for Ovarian cancer patients.
- The treatment with low doses of cyclophosphamide resulted in therapeutic response, ranging from a near clinical complete response to a long stable disease.
- Metronomic chemotherapy with oral cyclophosphamide presented a low toxicity profile and did not affect the patient’s quality of life.
