Medication and Pharmacology Terms

A drug being studied in the treatment of kidney cancer that has spread.

A drug used in photodynamic therapy.

Timing dominates this one: it stops new virus particles escaping infected cells, so it does most good early, before the infection has peaked.

Selective is the operative word, since the same drug blocks estrogen in breast tissue while imitating it in bone and the uterus.

A tablet that blocks estrogen in breast tissue while imitating it elsewhere, which explains both its benefits and its risks.

Relief arrives in days rather than months, because the drug changes muscle tone instead of shrinking the gland causing the obstruction.

It does not shrink the prostate at all; it slackens the muscle wrapped around the outlet, so any relief arrives within days.

A substance being studied in the treatment of some types of cancer.

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer.

A drug used to treat certain types of non-small cell lung cancer.

Treatment aimed at a single molecule a disease leans on, rather than at every fast-dividing cell in the body.

A drug used to treat skin problems caused by cutaneous T-cell lymphoma that have not gotten better after other treatment.

Tasigna targets the specific abnormal protein responsible for driving cell growth in a genetically defined form of chronic leukemia.

Yew-derived chemotherapy that freezes the cell's internal scaffolding solid, which is the opposite of what the other scaffolding drugs do.

A drug used with prednisone to treat hormone-resistant prostate cancer that has spread and that had been treated with docetaxel.

Taxol is the brand name for paclitaxel, a chemotherapy drug that stops cancer cells from dividing by disrupting their internal skeleton.

A brand of docetaxel, a chemotherapy drug that works by freezing the internal scaffolding a cell needs in order to divide.

Tazarotene is a topical retinoid medication used primarily to treat psoriasis and acne by normalizing skin cell growth and turnover.

A laboratory-made cousin of vitamin A whose established job is calming psoriasis and acne, not the cancer uses it is sometimes listed under.

An anticancer drug that belongs to the family of drugs called antimetabolites.