Results of chemotherapy are presented in detail for 603 courses of therapy with 30 drugs in 400 consecutive patients with 22 types of solid tumors. An overall response rate of 20% was observed. The length of response and length of survival was surprisingly short, even in patients who were treated on an adjuvant basis following potentially curative surgery for tumors with poor prognosis. Although chemotherapy provides encouragement and temporary improvement for many patients, and long-term objective benefit for a few, substantial improvement in drugs and methods is needed to provide useful, long-term benefit for the majority of patients with solid tumors.