CANCER DRUG

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cancer drug mean? 

• CANCER DRUG (noun)
  The noun CANCER DRUG has 1 sense:

1. any of several drugs that control or kill neoplastic cells; used in chemotherapy to kill cancer cells; all have unpleasant side effects that may include nausea and vomiting and hair loss and suppression of bone marrow function

  Familiarity information: CANCER DRUG used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CANCER DRUG (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of several drugs that control or kill neoplastic cells; used in chemotherapy to kill cancer cells; all have unpleasant side effects that may include nausea and vomiting and hair loss and suppression of bone marrow function

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

antineoplastic; antineoplastic drug; cancer drug

Hypernyms ("cancer drug" is a kind of...):

cytotoxic drug (any drug that has a toxic effect on cells; commonly used in chemotherapy to inhibit the proliferation of cancerous cells)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cancer drug"):

alkylating agent (an antineoplastic drug used to treat some forms of cancer)

antimetabolite (an antineoplastic drug that inhibits the utilization of a metabolite)

antineoplastic antibiotic (an antibiotic drug used as an antineoplastic in chemotherapy)

asparaginase; Elspar (antineoplastic drug (trade name Elspar) sometimes used to treat lymphoblastic leukemia)

floxuridine (antineoplastic drug used to treat some cancers; can cause loss of hair)

lomustine (an antineoplastic drug often used to treat brain tumors or Hodgkin's disease)

Alkeran; melphalan (antineoplastic drug (trade name Alkeran) used to treat multiple myeloma and some other malignancies)

periwinkle plant derivative (an antineoplastic drug used to treat some forms of cancer)

procarbazine (an antineoplastic drug used to treat Hodgkin's disease)

thioguanine (an antineoplastic drug used to treat acute leukemias)

thiotepa (an antineoplastic drug used to treat certain malignancies)

 Context examples 

A laboratory test that measures the number of tumor cells that are killed by a cancer drug.

(Chemosensitivity assay, NCI Dictionary)