- January 2019
- Radiation Oncology 36(4):265-275
- DOI:
- 10.3857/roj.2018.00381
Gollapalli Pavan
Abstract and figures
This
is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work
is properly cited. 265 Review Article Cancer is a complex multifaceted
illness that affects different patients in discrete ways. For a number
of cancers the use of chemotherapy has become standard practice.
Chemotherapy is a use of cytostatic drugs to cure cancer. Cytostatic
agents not only affect cancer cells but also affect the growth of normal
cells; leading to side effects. Because of this, radiotherapy gained
importance in treating cancer. Slaughtering of cancerous cells by
radiotherapy depends on the radiosensitivity of the tumor cells. Efforts
to improve the therapeutic ratio have resulted in the development of
compounds that increase the radiosensitivity of tumor cells or protect
the normal cells from the effects of radiation. Amifostine is the only
chemical radioprotector approved by the US Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), but due to its side effect and toxicity, use of this compound was
also failed. Hence the use of herbal radioprotectors bearing
pharmacological properties is concentrated due to their low toxicity and
efficacy. Notably, in silico methods can expedite drug discovery
process, to lessen the compounds with unfavorable pharmacological
properties at an early stage of drug development. Hence a detailed
perspective of these properties, in accordance with their prediction and
measurement, are pivotal for a successful identification of
radioprotectors by drug discovery process.
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