Drug of last resort
type of a drug
A drug of last resort (DoLR), also known as a heroic dose, is a pharmaceutical drug which is tried after all other drug options have failed to produce an adequate response in the patient. Drug resistance, such as antimicrobial resistance or antineoplastic resistance, may make the first-line drug ineffective, especially in case of multidrug-resistant pathogens and tumors. Such an alternative may be outside of extant regulatory requirements or medical best practices, in which case it may be viewed as salvage therapy.
Purposes
The use of a drug of last resort may be based on agreement among members of a patient's care network, including physicians and healthcare professionals across multiple specialties, or on a patient's desire to pursue a particular course of treatment and a practitioner's willingness to administer that course. Certain situations such as severe bacterial related sepsis or septic shock can more commonly lead to last resorts.
Therapies considered to be drugs of last resort may at times be used earlier, in the event that an agent would likely show the most immediate dose-response related efficacy in time-critical situations, such as high mortality circumstances. Many of the drugs considered last resorts fall into the categories of antibiotics, antivirals, and chemotherapy agents. These agents often exhibit what are considered to be among the most efficient dose-response related effects, or are drugs for which few or no resistant strains are known.
When used for the teatment of infectious pathological disease, drugs of last resort are commonly withheld from administration until after the trial and failure of more commonly used treatment options, to prevent the development of drug resistance. One of the most commonly known examples of both antimicrobial resistance and the relationship to the classification of a drug of last resort is the emergence of Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), sometimes also referred to as multiple-drug resistant S. aureus, due to resistance to non-penicillin antibiotics that some strains of S. aureus have shown to exhibit.
The public source identifies “Drug of last resort” as type of a drug. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Drug, last and resort.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Drug of last resort”, the useful work is to connect “type of a drug” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q122435. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Drug of last resort”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Drug of last resort primary sources, Drug of last resort archive and Drug research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Drug of last resort”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Drug of last resort” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.