Anti-metabolites are among the most important agents used in cancer chemotherapy. Ara-C, the thiopurines and MTX are active drugs for both induction and maintenance chemotherapy of childhood and adult leukaemia, while the new adenosine analogues are active against hairy cell leukaemia, with promising activity against other malignancies such as malignant lymphomas. Methotrexate and 5FU are being used in the treatment of several solid malignancies. Recent advances in the clinical pharmacology of widely used antimetabolites have shown a relationship among dose, plasma concentrations and clearance with the toxicity and anti-tumour activity. Thus, it has been shown that adaptative control of 5FU administration is possible, limiting the toxicity of this drug. Recent advances in the pharmacogenetics of, for example, 6MP and 5FU will possibly enable researchers to identify patients who may have an increased risk of toxicity. For ara-C, some evidence has been obtained to identify populations at risk of no response. In addition, for most anti-metabolites, convincing evidence of their intracellular (intratumour) metabolism has been obtained, thus making it possible to identify patients who are likely to respond to treatment. These studies (eg accumulation of active metabolites such as ara-CTP, thioguanine nucleotides, FdUMP, MTX-polyglutamates; and inhibition of target enzymes such as thymidylate synthase) have made it possible to develop the basis of biochemical modulation--that is, specific manipulation of intracellular metabolism of the drug. It is anticipated that new technical developments in molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology and immunology will make it possible to improve the identification of resistant patients in order to modulate specifically drug metabolism in the tumour cells. Biochemical modulation has been successful in achieving significant improvements in treatment and currently is a keystone in cancer chemotherapy. Together with the development of promising new anti-metabolites, biochemical modulation (with other drugs, biologicals) will be a major strategy for the future.