LAUSR

In a decade where the dynamic development of targeted therapies and modulation of the immune system for treating cancer has dramatically changed and dominates the armamentarium of an oncologist, the topic the authors of this minireview series have been confronted was challenging: is there anything new in the development of classical cytostatic drugs and their indications? Despite living in the area of “modern oncology”, there are indeed indications where chemotherapy remains the mainstay of treatment in all stages of the disease. Examples are pancreatic or gastric cancer, where many efforts of testing modern treatment strategies failed. On the other hand, there are entities like lung cancer, where chemotherapy has been significantly replaced by targeted or immunological treatment approaches. Nevertheless, the use of chemotherapy has not remained static and there are some developments with clinical impact for several indications. One of the major issues of chemotherapeutic substances is their toxicity. With the development of new antiemetic drugs the tolerability has been improved significantly, as is reviewed here. This is accompanied by using chemotherapeutic regimen in a de-escalated manner by retaining its efficacy. One example is the use of shortened weekly paclitaxel in combination with trastuzumab in low-risk, Her2-positive breast cancer. In addition, we could realize the more “specific” application of chemotherapeutic drugs. This has been