Transition metal based anticancer drugs.

With an ageing baby-boomer population in the Western World, cancer is becoming a significant cause of death. The prevalence of cancer and all associated costs, both in human and financial terms, drives the search for new therapeutic drugs and treatments. Platinum anticancer agents, such as cisplatin have been highly successful but there are several disadvantages associated with their use. What is need are new compounds with different mechanisms of action and resistance profiles. What needs to be recognised is that there are many other metal in the periodic table with therapeutic potential. Here we have highlighted metal complexes with activity and have illustrate the different approaches to the design of anticancer complexes.

Advances in platinum chemotherapeutics.

The approved platinum(II)-based anticancer agents cisplatin, carboplatin and oxaliplatin are widely utilised in the clinic, although with numerous disadvantages. With the aim of circumventing unwanted side-effects, a great deal of research is being conducted in the areas of cancer-specific targeting, drug administration and drug delivery. The targeting of platinum complexes to cancerous tissues can be achieved by the attachment of small molecules with biological significance. In addition, the administration of platinum complexes in the form of platinum(IV) allows for intracellular reduction to release the active form of the drug, cisplatin. Drug delivery includes such technologies as liposomes, dendrimers, polymers and nanotubes, with all showing promise for the delivery of platinum compounds. In this paper we highlight some of the recent advances in the field of platinum chemotherapeutics, with a focus on the technologies that attempt to utilise the cytotoxic nature of cisplatin, whilst improving drug targeting to reduce side-effects.