Treatments & tests

A drink taken before brain surgery that makes high-grade glioma glow under blue light, letting surgeons remove more tumour safely.

Abemaciclib was the first CDK4/6 inhibitor approved after surgery for high-risk hormone-positive breast cancer.

Abiraterone is a pill that shuts down testosterone production everywhere, including inside the tumour. Discovered at the Institute of Cancer Research, now generic and used from the first metastatic diagnosis.

Acalabrutinib is a cleaner BTK blocker with fewer heart and bleeding problems than ibrutinib. In February 2026 it became half of the first all-oral, fixed-duration CLL regimen.

Acitretin is a vitamin A tablet licensed for severe psoriasis. In people who have had an organ transplant and keep developing skin cancers, it reduces the number of new squamous cell carcinomas while it is taken.

Adagrasib was the second KRAS G12C inhibitor, with a long half-life and brain penetration, and is approved in lung and colorectal cancer.

Adebrelimab is Hengrui's PD-L1 antibody, approved in China for first-line extensive-stage small cell lung cancer on the CAPSTONE-1 trial.

Afamitresgene autoleucel was the first engineered T-cell receptor therapy approved for a solid tumour, synovial sarcoma.

Afatinib (Gilotrif) is a second-generation pill that binds EGFR, HER2 and HER4 irreversibly, approved in 2013 for EGFR-mutant lung cancer. Its lasting value is activity against the uncommon EGFR mutations G719X, L861Q and S768I, approved in 2018, because osimertinib has displaced it for common mutations and its wild-type EGFR binding causes more rash and diarrhoea.

High-dose interleukin-2 was the first immunotherapy to cure a small fraction of patients with metastatic melanoma and kidney cancer, at the cost of ICU-level toxicity; today it mainly supports TIL therapy.

Alectinib is a well-tolerated ALK pill, standard first line for years and, since 2024, the first targeted therapy given after surgery for ALK-positive lung cancer.

Alemtuzumab (Campath) is an antibody that wipes out lymphocytes carrying the CD52 marker. It is approved for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and is supplied in the US through a restricted distribution programme.

Tregzi, formerly Orca-T, is a donor stem cell transplant sorted with high precision and given with regulatory T cells, so that patients with blood cancers keep the graft's anti-cancer effect while being protected from chronic graft-versus-host disease. The FDA approved it on 30 June 2026 for adults having a matched-donor transplant.

Alpelisib was the first PI3K drug for PIK3CA-mutant breast cancer (2019). It is effective, but high blood sugar and rash limited its use, and newer drugs are displacing it.

Amifostine (Ethyol) is an infusion given just before chemotherapy or radiotherapy to shield the kidneys from cisplatin and the salivary glands from radiation, reducing dry mouth after head and neck treatment.

Aminolevulinic acid is painted on sun-damaged skin and then activated with a lamp, destroying actinic keratoses before they can become skin cancer; in Europe the gel is also approved for superficial basal cell carcinoma.

A two-armed antibody that blocks EGFR and its escape partner MET, now first-line for EGFR-mutant lung cancer with lazertinib.

Anagrelide (Agrylin) is a capsule that lowers dangerously high platelet counts in essential thrombocythaemia and other myeloproliferative neoplasms, reducing the risk of clots and bleeding.

Anastrozole is a daily tablet that stops the body making oestrogen after the menopause. It treats and prevents hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer and is an alternative to tamoxifen after surgery for ductal carcinoma in situ.

Anlotinib is one of the most used cancer pills in China, first approved for lung cancer after other treatments have failed and then for several rarer tumours.

An AR blocker approved for prostate cancer that has spread and for high-risk disease before it shows on scans.

Aprepitant (Emend) was the first of a new class of anti-sickness drugs. Taken with a 5-HT3 blocker and dexamethasone, it prevents the delayed nausea and vomiting that follow strongly emetogenic chemotherapy such as cisplatin.

An ancient poison turned cure: with retinoic acid it cures more than 95% of acute promyelocytic leukaemia without conventional chemotherapy.

An FDA-cleared AI test (May 2026) that reads breast cancer slides to estimate recurrence risk in early hormone-positive disease.

The first AI tool cleared by the FDA to predict both prognosis and treatment benefit from a routine biopsy slide, in prostate cancer.

Asciminib is a BCR::ABL1 blocker that binds a different pocket from every other TKI, approved for all newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukaemia in 2024 and now being tested in Ph-positive ALL.

An enzyme that starves leukaemia cells of an amino acid they cannot make; a mainstay of childhood ALL therapy for 50 years, with new versions solving allergy and supply problems.

A PD-L1 blocker used in lung, liver, and bladder cancer. In 2026 it became the first drug approved based on a blood test showing leftover cancer after bladder surgery.

Aumolertinib is Hansoh's third-generation lung cancer pill, the first China-developed drug of its class, approved for first-line EGFR-mutant lung cancer on the AENEAS trial.

Avapritinib is the first drug for GIST driven by the PDGFRA D842V mutation, which resists every other kinase inhibitor; it is also approved for systemic mastocytosis.

Avelumab is a PD-L1 blocker given as maintenance after chemotherapy for advanced bladder cancer, which lengthened survival by about seven months.

Avutometinib plus defactinib is the first treatment approved specifically for low-grade serous ovarian cancer, a slow-growing type driven by the RAS pathway.

A CD19 CAR-T that cures about 40% of patients with large B-cell lymphoma who had failed everything, and beat transplant in second line.

Axitinib is a selective VEGF-receptor pill, now given mainly with pembrolizumab or avelumab as first-line kidney cancer treatment.

A gentle chemotherapy that switches silenced genes back on. With venetoclax it became the standard for older people with AML who cannot take intensive treatment.

A myeloma ADC that was withdrawn in 2022 then came back in 2025 after strong trials in earlier lines.

Belinostat is an HDAC inhibitor for relapsed peripheral T-cell lymphoma; about a quarter of patients respond, and it can be used in patients with low platelets.

Belumosudil is a pill for chronic graft-versus-host disease, the long-term immune complication of donor stem-cell transplants used to cure blood cancers.

Belzutifan is the first HIF-2α inhibitor, born from Nobel-winning biology, and is now approved after kidney cancer surgery with pembrolizumab.

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

Benmelstobart is Chia Tai Tianqing's PD-L1 antibody, approved in China in 2024 for extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer in combination with anlotinib and chemotherapy.

Bevacizumab is a humanised antibody that soaks up VEGF-A, the signal tumours use to grow new blood vessels. Approved in 2004, it partners chemotherapy in colorectal, ovarian, cervical, lung, kidney and liver cancer and glioblastoma, and adds to trifluridine/tipiracil in late-line bowel cancer; hypertension, protein in the urine and bleeding are its characteristic side effects.

A blood-vessel-blocking antibody that shrinks glioblastoma on scans and reduces swelling, but has never been shown to help patients live longer.

Bexarotene (Targretin) is a vitamin A-like capsule and gel for the skin disease of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma when other treatments have stopped working.

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

Binimetinib is the MEK inhibitor partnered with encorafenib; blocking the next step in the same relay stops the tumour rerouting around the BRAF block.

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.

Blinatumomab was the first T-cell engager (2014), and is now given to children and adults with leukaemia even when in remission, because it improves survival.

Bortezomib was the first proteasome inhibitor: it jams the cell's protein-recycling machine, which antibody-factory plasma cells cannot tolerate.

Bosutinib is a CML pill with less cardiovascular and pleural toxicity than its rivals; its main side effect is diarrhoea.

The inherited BRCA test that decides who can have PARP inhibitor pills for ovarian, breast, pancreatic and prostate cancer.

The ADC that made the modern field credible (2011), for Hodgkin lymphoma and CD30+ lymphomas.

Brexucabtagene autoleucel is the CAR-T therapy for mantle cell lymphoma and adult acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, giving long remissions after BTK inhibitors fail.

Brigatinib is an ALK pill with strong brain activity, approved first after crizotinib and then first line after beating it in ALTA-1L.

Bromocriptine was the first pill that could shrink a pituitary tumour. From the 1970s it turned prolactinomas from a surgical disease into one usually controlled with tablets, and it is still used where cabergoline is unavailable or unsuitable.

Crysvita is an antibody for a rare bone-softening condition in which the body leaks phosphate. Some small tumours cause it by making too much of a hormone called FGF23; when the tumour cannot be found or removed, Crysvita blocks the hormone.

Busulfan is one of the oldest cancer drugs. As a tablet it controlled chronic myeloid leukaemia before imatinib; as an infusion it is used to clear the bone marrow before a stem cell transplant.

A second taxane that works after docetaxel and beat a second hormone pill head-to-head (CARD).

Cabergoline is a tablet taken once or twice a week that shrinks prolactin-secreting pituitary tumours and normalises hormone levels in most patients, so surgery is reserved for the few whose tumours resist or who cannot tolerate it.

A pill that blocks both blood-vessel growth and the MET escape pathway, used in kidney, liver, thyroid and, since 2025, neuroendocrine cancers.