title: Maintenance therapy to suppress micrometastasis: the new challenge for adjuvant cancer treatment.
abstract: The palliative efficacy of cytotoxic drugs is routinely assessed using tumor shrinkage (response) rates shown in clinical trials. Although adjuvant drug therapy has a goal distinct from that of palliative therapy (i.e., to prolong survival by inhibiting progression of micrometastatic disease), it is widely assumed that the adjuvant efficacy of a drug will parallel its response rate ("activity") in advanced stages of the disease. Reconsideration of this assumption seems timely in view of recent developments: the realization that many predictors of short-term tumor response correlate inversely with long-term survival outcomes; the characterization of tumor progression as a discontinuous process that may include dormant phases; the understanding that micrometastasis is therapeutically suppressible by a variety of mechanisms including direct tumor cell kill, cytotoxic disruption of paracrine growth signals from normal tissues, and targeted inhibition of prometastatic pathways; the recognition that tumor dormancy not only blocks the antimetastatic efficacy of cytotoxic drugs but also represents a therapeutic end point for metastasis-suppressive noncytotoxic drugs such as hormone inhibitors; and the insight that optimal adjuvant drug therapy is likely to include both induction and maintenance components. The traditional view of cytoreductive response as a prerequisite for adjuvant drug efficacy thus merits reappraisal, with a view to accelerating incorporation of novel noncytotoxic maintenance therapies into controlled studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Professorial Block, Queen Mary Hospital, Pokfulam, Hong Kong. repstein@hku.hk
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Epstein
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant / Q000379:methods; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D010166:Palliative Care; D012008:Recurrence; D012074:Remission Induction; D012306:Risk; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents