Description
Doxorubicin hydrochloride is a type of chemotherapy drug called an anthracycline. It blocks an enzyme called topoisomerase II, which cuts and repairs tangled strands of DNA. This stops or slows the growth of cancer cells and other rapidly dividing cells.
Doxorubicin hydrochloride is approved to be used alone or with other drugs to treat:
- Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
- Acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
- Breast cancer.
- Gastric (stomach) cancer that is metastatic.
- Hodgkin lymphoma.
- Neuroblastoma that is metastatic.
- Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
- Non-small cell lung cancer that is metastatic.
- Ovarian cancer that is metastatic.
- Small cell lung cancer that is metastatic.
- Soft tissue and bone sarcomas that are metastatic.
- Thyroid cancer that is metastatic.
- Transitional cell bladder cancer that is metastatic.
- Wilms tumor that is metastatic.
Doxorubicin hydrochloride is also available in a different form called doxorubicin hydrochloride liposome.