antineoplastic
Meaning of antineoplastic: Antineoplastic drugs form the basis of chemotherapy, working through several distinct mechanisms to slow, damage, or destroy dividing cancer cells.
Definition of antineoplastic
An antineoplastic is a drug used to treat cancer by killing cancer cells or slowing their growth and division, forming the basis of chemotherapy treatment. The category includes several distinct types of drugs that act through different mechanisms, such as damaging a cancer cell's genetic material, interfering with its ability to divide, or blocking signals the cell needs to grow.
Because antineoplastic drugs are designed to target rapidly dividing cells, a feature characteristic of cancer, they can also affect other rapidly dividing healthy cells in the body, such as those in bone marrow, the digestive tract lining, and hair follicles, which accounts for many common side effects associated with this drug category.
Antineoplastic drugs are often used in combination, with different drugs targeting cancer cells through different mechanisms simultaneously, and are frequently given alongside other treatments, such as surgery or radiation therapy, as part of an overall cancer treatment plan.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
An antineoplastic regimen was started following the diagnosis of the malignancy.
Good to know
Antineoplastic drugs act on cancer cells by exploiting their rapid division, a feature also shared by some healthy tissues, which is why bone marrow suppression and hair loss are common effects.
Word origin
Where “antineoplastic” comes from
Formed from Greek anti-, meaning against, and neos, meaning new, and plasis, meaning a forming, describing the abnormal new tissue growth that defines a neoplasm.