[Basic stages of organizing antineoplastic chemotherapy in Russia. Role of the Russian Oncological Scientific Center named for N. N. Blokhina, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences].

The paper outlines the history of cancer chemotherapy in our country, starting with the 1950s marked by the first studies made by L. F. Larionov to design cancer chloroethylamine drugs and by studies by N. N. Blokhin who initiated their clinical studies at his headed Institute of Cancer Experimental Pathology and Therapy, USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (now the N. N. Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences). The historically established leading role of this center in the development of cancer chemotherapy in Russia is greatly determined by the fact that the country's first specialized department of chemotherapy headed by V. I. Astrakhan was founded in 1960, which has become a center that conducts clinical trials of new Russian and foreign cancer drugs and trains cancer chemotherapeutists. Intensive development of the problem, collaboration with the country's leading research institutions and international cooperation have promoted the development of clinical chemotherapy for cancer diseases, which is an essential component of multimodality treatment in cancer patients now. Alkylating agents, antimetabolites, antitumor antibiotics, taxanes, topoisomerase I and II inhibitors, antiestrogens, antiandrogens, aromatase inhibitors, LH-RH agonists, cytokines. There are prospects for development of basically new approaches to drug therapy for cancer diseases in terms of latest data on the molecular biological features of tumor growth.