Rubicin

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of chemotherapy drug used to treat various cancers, particularly effective against certain leukemias and breast cancer
2. A medication that belongs to the anthracycline class, utilized to inhibit cancer cell growth and division
3. An anti-cancer agent that interferes with DNA replication in malignant cells, being crucial in cancer treatment regimens

Etymology: Rather than naming a single drug, "rubicin" works as a stem shared by a family of anticancer antibiotics, the anthracyclines. Its first half comes from Latin "rubeus" or "rubidus," meaning red, because these compounds are deep red in colour. The drug daunorubicin was first called "rubidomycin," a name built on the same Latin root and on the "-mycin" ending that marks antibiotics from soil microbes. The "-cin" ending is the modern pharmaceutical version of that antibiotic suffix. Because the naming was systematic, the stem lets chemists and clinicians tell at a glance that a drug belongs to this class, so doxorubicin, epirubicin and idarubicin all carry it. The stem therefore describes a shared chemical family more than any one medicine.

Synonyms: doxorubicin, adriamycin