Metronomic therapy is an alternative salvage treatment for patients who have been heavily pre-treated relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, kidney cancer, liver cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and cancer of the prostate. Metronomic therapy has been shown to affect both tumor cells & tumor microenvironment to achieve therapeutic effects. Metronomic cancer therapy is also considered a lower cost dose used compared to conventional chemotherapy and NK Cell treatments.
Metronomic therapy vs conventional chemotherapy
In conventional cancer chemotherapy, a near maximum dose is administered to achieve cytotoxic effects on existing tumor cells. This approach can be successful, however, the side effects are often very significant. The Cytotoxic agents in therapies also rapidly kill all fast-dividing cells in the body, including epithelial cells, mesenchymal cells, bone marrow cells and damage to the gastrointestinal tract. Patients often need treatment breaks to allow recovery of some of the damaged functions and tissues.
In comparison, metronomic therapy, uses lower dosages (one-tenth to one-third ) of standard dose. This allows more frequent sessions using low concentrations of the medications in the blood plasma. Metronomic therapy medications are commonly given in oral form and is cheaper compared with intravenous injections used in conventional chemotherapy. At a low concentrations, the metronomic drugs primarily act on the tumor microenvironment, immune cells & tumor endothelial cells. Since patients need lower dosages the risk of having adverse side effects is often much lower.