Chemotherapy has been widely used to administer cytostatic and antineoplastic agents to patients suffering from cancer. Although chemotherapy is efficient against some cancers, it is often exhausting for patients. Moreover, current chemotherapeutic agents have a number of adverse side effects due to their non-specific cytotoxicity, which usually affect not only tumor cells, but also normal cells having a high mitotic activity, such as epithelial cells. This is especially the case with alkylating agents, which are used in approximately half of all chemotherapy treatments to inhibit DNA replication of cancerous cells. Non-alkylating cancer chemotherapy drugs are also toxic to mammalian cells; they can inhibit multiple sites within a replicating cell, such as synthesis of nucleotides required for DNA replication and microtubule function required for mitosis.
Non limiting examples of non-alkylating cancer chemotherapy drugs and their adverse side effects are given below.
Classical Alkylating Agents                Many of the agents are known as “Classical alkylating agents”. These include alkyl groups, and have been known for a longer time than some of the other alkylating agents. Examples include melphalan and chlorambucil. They destroy proliferating cancer cells by adding an alkyl group to DNA molecule and preventing its replication.        The following three groups are almost always considered “classical”.                    Nitrogen mustards, like: Cyclophosphamide, Mechlorethamine or mustine (HN2) (trade name Mustargen), Uramustine or uracil mustard, Melphalan, Chlorambucil, Ifosfamide, Bendamustine, . . .            Nitrosoureas, like: Carmustine, Lomustine, Streptozocin, . . .            Alkyl sulfonates like: Busulfan, Thiotepa, . . .                        
Alkylating-Like Agents                Platinum-based chemotherapeutic drugs (termed platinum analogues) act in a similar manner. These agents do not have an alkyl group, but nevertheless damage DNA. They permanently coordinate to DNA to interfere with DNA repair, so they are described as “alkylating-like”. Some non limiting example of platinum analogues are: Platinum, Cisplatin, Carboplatin, Nedaplatin, Oxaliplatin, Satraplatin, Triplatin tetranitrate, . . .        
The alkylating agents all have numerous adverse side effects, but the predominant toxicities are on gastrointestinal tract (vomiting, nausea, diarrhea) and mucositis, a severe inflammation of the mucosa.
The toxicity of cancer therapy for epithelial cells accounts for many of the side effects commonly suffered by persons undergoing a regimen of chemotherapy. These complications can be so difficult to endure that it is not uncommon for patients to forego or discontinue recommended cancer therapy treatments.
Most common complications of chemotherapy include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation, asthenia, fatigue, mucositis, alopecia, respiratory and cognitive disorders. Toxicity against various cells including blood cells, hepatic cells, nerve cells, lung cells and heart cells has also been reported. Blood cell poisoning may result in anemia and depression of the immune system leading to infections. Nerve cell damage may cause headache, inter alia, whereas lung cell poisoning typically results in coughing spells. To date, prophylactic treatments have been provided in order to reduce the severity or occurrence of some of the above adverse side effects. For instance, erythropoietin (EPO) is recommended to prevent anemia and granulocytic growth factors (GCSF) to boost the immune system. However, vomiting and nausea continue to be the most distressing side effects of cancer chemotherapy. They may ultimately result in weight loss, which is another adverse event associated with chemotherapy that may compromise a patient's chances of recovery, because his ability to fight disease may be reduced by a weakened state. It has especially been reported that platinum-based chemotherapy, and notably cisplatin has the highest emetogenicity effect among antineoplastic agents (Annals of Oncology, 21 (Supplement 5): v232-v243, 2010). To prevent acute nausea and vomiting, an anti-emetic drug regimen is recommended, including a 5-HT3 receptor antagonist and/or dexamethasone and/or aprepitant, which is a selective antagonist of the neurokinin (NK)1 neurotransmitter receptor. Although these prophylactic treatments have proven to be rather efficient on vomiting, identification of anti-nausea agents remains a big challenge.
Moreover, chemotherapy is frequently administered concurrently with radiotherapy, which shares with chemotherapy several of the above adverse events, such as nausea and vomiting, asthenia, headache and cough. This is because radiation therapy achieves most of its cell killing properties by generating oxygen radicals within cells, which may also kill mammalian cells.
It would therefore be particularly useful to provide a single prophylactic treatment that would be efficient against many of these adverse side effects of chemotherapy, in order to avoid treating each of the above conditions separately.