The development of drug-resistant cancers is considered to be the most significant obstacle to the cure of cancer today. Nearly half of all patients with cancer suffer from tumours that are intrinsically resistant to chemotherapy, and most of the remaining half develop drug resistance during the course of their treatment. This book reviews the mechanisms and clinical implications of drug resistance in cancer with unrivalled authority. Chapters cover topics of current clinical concern, including multiple drug resistance and its reversal, topoisomerase drugs, apoptosis, dose intensity and escalation, gene therapy and haematopoietic support. The authors are among the leading clinicians and investigators in the field. These authoritative volumes in this series are intended for a wide audience of clinicians and researchers with an interest in the applications of biomedical science to the understanding and management of cancer.

List of contributors; Series editor's preface; Abbreviations; 1. Resistance mechanisms to antimetabolites Erdem Göker, Richard Gorlick and Joseph R. Bertino; 2. Resistance to antitumor alkylating agents and cisplatin Beverly A. Teicher and Emil Frei III; 3. The MDR genes Lyn Mickley and Antonio Tito Fojo; 4. Topoisomerase genes and resistance to topoisomerase inhibitors Giuseppe Giaccone; 5. Genes that modulate apoptosis: major determinants of drug resistance John A. Hickman; 6. Clinical implications of drug resistance Henk M. W. Verheul and Herbert M. Pinedo; 7. The reversal of multidrug resistance William S. Dalton; 8. Effect of dose and schedule on chemotherapeutic drug resistance David Fennelly, George Raptis, John P. A. Crown and Larry Norton; 9. Circumvention of drug resistance by high-dose chemotherapy in solid tumors Elisabeth G. E. de Vries, Wil Dolsma, Geke A. P. Hospers and Nanno H. Mulder; 10. Enhancing drug effectiveness by gene transfer Karol Sikora; Index.