cytotoxic

British  

/ ˌsaɪtəʊtɒkˈsɪsɪtɪ, ˌsaɪtəʊˈtɒksɪk /

adjective

1. poisonous to living cells: denoting certain drugs used in the treatment of leukaemia and other cancers

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Other Word Forms

• cytotoxicity noun

Example Sentences

The drug, daraxonrasib, showed improvements in survival and success compared with standard-of-care cytotoxic chemotherapy in patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma who had been previously treated.

From Barron's • Apr. 13, 2026

Patients whose cytotoxic T cells were located closer to dying tumor cells tended to survive longer after treatment.

From Science Daily • Mar. 20, 2026

Checkpoint inhibitor therapies, for example, aim to release the blockade of fully differentiated cytotoxic T cells and "switch them back on."

From Science Daily • Apr. 24, 2024

The scientists had previously discovered that the formation of abnormal or "bad" myelin in these mice leads to an inflammatory reaction comprising an accumulation of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells.

From Science Daily • Nov. 28, 2023

Their lungs should have been home to a diverse bunch of CD4+ T cell types but, in this group, more than 65 per cent of their cells were cytotoxic CD4+ tissue-resident memory T cells.

From Science Daily • Oct. 23, 2023