title: Late effects of cancer therapy: the role of the clinical pharmacologist.
abstract: The clinical pharmacologist, by increasing our knowledge of the molecular mode of action of drugs and their specific anticancer mechanisms, can help to predict which therapies would be expected to have late effects that were progeric, infectious, or oncogenic, and in which organs such effects could arise. By insisting upon the inclusion of appropriate controls, the pharmacologist can help attribute any observed late effects to a primary host-disease diathesis, or to the direct effects of therapy, or to the indirect effects of prolongation of the life of the host. Finally, by participating in the design and including appropriate control groups from the start of new clinical trials, the clinical pharmacologist can help restrict clinical therapies whose antitumor effects are absent or small but whose late toxic potentials are high.
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000494:pharmacology; D004261:DNA Replication / Q000187:drug effects; D004341:Drug Evaluation; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007167:Immunotherapy; D008938:Mitosis / Q000187:drug effects; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy; D010600:Pharmacology
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones