One of the limitations of chemotherapy is the distinction between the normal
and tumor cells, which leads to unfavorable side-effects. Ideally, combinatorial
chemotherapy is preferred over single-agent chemotherapy because of synergistic
effects of the combination. For cancer chemotherapy, the quantifiable parameters
include the five-year and the ten-year survival rates, which can be considerably
improved by administering combinatorial treatments. For treating cancer patients with
drug combinations, at least one of the drugs should be FDA-approved as an anti-cancer
drug. Such combinations are effective as well as affordable for most patients. Another
significant advantage of combinations over monotherapies is that the combinations of
drugs can target multiple cancer signaling proteins, making the overall therapy broadrange
and less toxic. Due to the heterogeneity of tumors, there are increased chances of
development of chemoresistance. A combinatorial approach towards treating cancers is
the way forward to dealing with resistant tumors. This chapter outlines how the
combinatorial-targeted therapies constitute a novel and promising perspective to cancer
therapy, already leading to beneficial clinical effects.
Keywords: Angiogenic, Angiogenesis Inhibitors, Cancer, Combinatorial therapy,
Epidermal growth factor receptor, Epigenetic drugs, ErbB inhibitors, Hormonal,
Immunotherapy, PARP.
