A new anticancer drug with significant clinical activity

Adriamycin, a new antineoplastic drug, induces objective tumor responses in solid tumors (adenocarcinoma of the breast, malignant sarcomas, bronchogenic carcinoma, and neuroblastoma) as well as in hematologic malignancies (malignant lymphomas and acute leukemia). The responses in specific tumor types are reviewed, and the relative clinical efficacy of adriamycin is compared with that of other antitumor agents. The toxic effects of adriamycin are also reviewed. Adriamycin therapy results in dose limiting hematologic and cardiac toxicity, as well as stomatitis, nausea, vomiting, and alopecia, but in general these toxicities are predictable and reversible. The theoretical limitations of this type of review are pointed out.