The drugs included should have different mechanisms of action to minimize the possibility of drug resistance. Drugs selected should have minimally overlapping toxicities to allow the administration of full or nearly full doses of each active agent to result in a greated tumor cell kill. The individual drugs should be optimally scheduled and the combination after at consistent intervals. Usually, the interval selected between cycles is the narrowest possible to allow recovery the most sensitive normal target tussue, which usually is the bone marrow. Several cycles of treatment should be given.
Most curable tumors require at least six to eight cycle of therapy.
The traditional 'MOPP' regimen for Hodgkin's lymphoma illustrates some of these principles.