Metronomic Therapy
Metronomic (= steady) (chemo-)therapy means the patient receives daily low doses of the drug over a certain period of time as opposed to standard therapy where one-time maximum dose is administered at about every three weeks. The aim of metronomic therapy is not to attack the tumour directly but to inhibit vascular cell formation in the tumour. Studies have shown that the inhibitive effect already occurs at low doses. In addition, continuous drug administration prevents the tumour cells from recovering during the therapy-free period.
While on metronomic therapy the patients simultaneously receive drugs that “starve the tumour to death”, i.e. they prevent the formation of new blood vessels. In most cases this type of therapy has little or no side effects.
Metronomic therapy is still an experimental treatment. For this reason it is applied in our hospital only when there is no other promising therapy option available.
Send Link
Print view
Sitemap
