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An East German chemotherapy rediscovered in the 2000s that became the backbone partner for rituximab in follicular, mantle cell and Waldenström lymphomas.

The old antiandrogen pill used to block the testosterone flare from GnRH agonists and in combined androgen blockade; superseded by enzalutamide-class drugs.

Bleomycin is the 'B' in BEP for testicular cancer and ABVD for Hodgkin lymphoma; its unique danger is scarring of the lungs, so lung function is monitored and it is often dropped when safe.

Capecitabine (Xeloda) is a tablet form of the chemotherapy fluorouracil. It is a backbone of treatment for bowel cancer and a standard option in advanced breast cancer.

Carmustine is a chemotherapy that reaches the brain. It is given by infusion for brain tumours, lymphoma and myeloma, and as a slow-release wafer left in the cavity after a brain tumour is removed.

Chlorambucil (Leukeran) is a gentle oral chemotherapy tablet used for decades in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and low-grade lymphomas, mainly in older patients.

A one-week infusion that puts most people with hairy cell leukaemia into remission for years; also used in multiple sclerosis in tablet form.

Cyclophosphamide is an alkylating chemotherapy that damages DNA in dividing cells. It is part of CHOP for lymphoma, AC for breast cancer and VAC for childhood sarcomas, clears lymphocytes before CAR-T and prevents graft-versus-host disease after transplant; bladder bleeding, infertility and secondary leukaemia are its harms.

Cytarabine is the core chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukaemia, given with an anthracycline as the classic 7+3 induction and at high doses for consolidation; it is also injected into the spinal fluid to treat or prevent leukaemia in the brain.

Dacarbazine is an older chemotherapy infusion. It was the standard treatment for advanced melanoma for decades and is the D in the ABVD regimen that cures most Hodgkin lymphoma.

The first antibiotic used as an anticancer drug (1954) and still the core of chemotherapy for Wilms tumour, rhabdomyosarcoma and gestational trophoblastic disease.

Daunorubicin is the anthracycline most often combined with cytarabine to bring acute myeloid leukaemia into remission; it is also part of induction for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Dexamethasone is a long-acting glucocorticoid steroid that kills lymphoid cancer cells directly, which is why it sits in nearly every myeloma regimen and in childhood leukaemia and lymphoma protocols. It is also the standard drug for preventing chemotherapy sickness and for brain swelling and spinal cord compression; high blood sugar, insomnia, muscle wasting and infection follow prolonged use.

Epirubicin (Ellence) is a close relative of doxorubicin used mainly after breast cancer surgery when lymph nodes are involved, and in stomach cancer regimens; it is a little kinder to the heart.

Erlotinib was one of the first EGFR pills for lung cancer; it was approved before anyone knew EGFR mutations predicted who would respond, then redefined by them.

Etoposide is a chemotherapy from the mayapple plant, essential to curing testicular cancer (BEP), treating small-cell lung cancer, lymphomas, childhood sarcomas and leukaemias, and used in transplant conditioning.

Fludarabine is a chemotherapy infusion for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. It anchored the FCR regimen that was the first to give long remissions, and today it is used above all to prepare patients for CAR-T cells and transplants.

The 1957 chemotherapy that remains the backbone of treatment for bowel, stomach, pancreatic, anal, head and neck and breast cancers, and as a cream for skin precancers.

Flutamide was the first tablet to block testosterone at the prostate cancer cell. It is taken with an injection that stops testosterone production, but newer drugs have largely replaced it.

The lung-cancer pill whose dramatic responses in a few patients led to the discovery of EGFR mutations in 2004.

A versatile chemotherapy used in pancreatic, bladder, lung, ovarian, breast and biliary cancers, in nasopharyngeal cancer, and as a bladder instillation.

Granisetron is an anti-sickness medicine for chemotherapy given as a tablet, an injection, a week-long skin patch (Sancuso) or a slow-release injection that lasts several days (Sustol).

Hydroxyurea is a cheap, decades-old pill that lowers high blood counts in polycythaemia vera and essential thrombocythaemia and is also the main drug for sickle cell disease.

Idarubicin is an anthracycline chemotherapy approved in 1990 for adult acute myeloid leukaemia, given with cytarabine in 3+7 induction and FLAG-Ida salvage and in acute promyelocytic leukaemia protocols. Randomised trials showed more complete remissions than with daunorubicin, which is why centres prefer it; heart damage, marrow suppression and extravasation injury are the class risks.

Irinotecan is a topoisomerase-blocking chemotherapy central to bowel and pancreatic cancer regimens (FOLFIRI, FOLFIRINOX, NALIRIFOX) and to salvage therapy in childhood sarcomas; it carries the same warhead as the deruxtecan ADC payloads.

Leucovorin is not a cancer drug in itself: it rescues normal tissue after high-dose methotrexate and, given with fluorouracil, makes that chemotherapy work better, which is why it appears in FOLFOX, FOLFIRI and FOLFIRINOX.

Leuprolide is the injectable that shuts off testosterone production, the foundation of hormone therapy for prostate cancer since the 1980s; it is also used for ovarian suppression in premenopausal breast cancer.

Megestrol acetate is a hormone tablet used to ease advanced breast and womb cancer, and as a liquid to improve appetite and weight in people with cancer or AIDS-related wasting.

The myeloma chemotherapy that is also the standard high-dose conditioning before autologous transplant, and, delivered directly into the liver's blood supply or the eye, treats uveal melanoma metastases and retinoblastoma.

Mercaptopurine is a daily tablet, or a liquid for children, that keeps acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in remission during the long maintenance phase of treatment.

Mesna is given with the chemotherapy ifosfamide (and high-dose cyclophosphamide) to stop its breakdown products from burning the bladder lining and causing bleeding.

The 1948 antifolate that produced the first chemotherapy remissions in childhood leukaemia and the first cure of a solid tumour; still essential in ALL, lymphoma, osteosarcoma and CNS lymphoma.

The chemotherapy given with radiation to cure anal cancer without surgery, used as a bladder instillation after tumour resection, and since 2020-25 in gel form for upper-tract and recurrent bladder cancers.

Mitoxantrone is a blue chemotherapy infusion used with cytarabine for acute myeloid leukaemia and, historically, to relieve pain in advanced prostate cancer; it is also licensed for multiple sclerosis.

Nilutamide (Nilandron) is an older antiandrogen tablet started on the day of surgical castration for metastatic prostate cancer; it is rarely used now because of lung and eye side effects.

Ondansetron (Zofran) was the drug that made cisplatin-type chemotherapy bearable. It blocks the serotonin signal that triggers vomiting and is now a cheap generic tablet, dissolving wafer or injection used across cancer care.

The platinum drug that works in bowel cancer where cisplatin does not, the 'OX' in FOLFOX and CAPOX; its cost is nerve damage in hands and feet.

Pamidronate (Aredia) is a bisphosphonate infusion approved in 1991 for dangerously high blood calcium in cancer and later for bone damage from myeloma and breast cancer, where it roughly halved skeletal complications. Its two-hour infusion, against fifteen minutes for zoledronic acid, pushed most centres to switch, though it is cheaper and may cause less jaw osteonecrosis.

An intravenous drug given every other week that produces long remissions in hairy cell leukaemia by poisoning the leukaemic lymphocytes' purine metabolism; cladribine is the one-week alternative.

Prednisone is the everyday steroid tablet in cancer care. It is the P in CHOP and MOPP for lymphoma, part of childhood leukaemia treatment, and taken with abiraterone in prostate cancer.

Thioguanine (Tabloid) is an oral chemotherapy tablet used in some regimens to induce and consolidate remission in acute myeloid leukaemia; long-term use is avoided because it damages the liver.

Vinblastine is the vinca alkaloid in ABVD, the standard Hodgkin lymphoma regimen, and was formerly in the cisplatin combinations that first cured testicular cancer.

A plant-derived chemotherapy from the Madagascar periwinkle that has been in almost every childhood leukaemia and lymphoma regimen since the 1960s.

Vinorelbine is a vinca chemotherapy for lung and breast cancer, available orally, and is now part of maintenance therapy that improved survival in childhood rhabdomyosarcoma.

Zoledronic acid (Zometa) is a fifteen-minute infusion given every few weeks or months to strengthen bone and prevent fractures, spinal cord compression and the need for radiotherapy in people with myeloma or cancer that has spread to bone; it also treats dangerously high calcium caused by cancer.