Definition of "mercaptopurine" []

• A purine analogue, C5H4N4S, that acts as an antimetabolite by interfering with purine synthesis, used primarily in the treatment of acute leukemia. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The next regimen they would try would be a combination of all four drugs: vincristine, amethopterin, mercaptopurine, and prednisone."
• "When a 12-year-old boy from Illinois with ALL arrived at St. Jude in 2001, Pui administered everything but the kitchen sink: the drugs prednisone, vincristine, daunorubicin, and asparaginase, followed by cyclophosphamide, cytarabine, and mercaptopurine."
• "Six weeks later, he gave the boy four courses of high-dose methotrexate, daily mercaptopurine, and four triple-drug treatments into the spinal fluid."