Antitumour agents Cancer

J. I. Brodfuehrer, T. J. Wilke, G. Powis, Pharmacokinetics and Metabolism of the Antitumour Agent Sulphamic Acid 1,7-Heptanediyl Ester (Sulphamic Acid Diester) in the Mouse and Ebagle Dog , Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol. 1988, 22, 120-129. 

Philpott, M., Baguley, B. C., and Ching, L.-M. (1995) Induction of tumour necrosis factor-alpha by single and repeated doses of the antitumour agent 5,6-dimethylxanthenone-4-aceticacid. Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol. 36,143-148. 

One of us (J.C.D.) is grateful to the American Cancer Society (CH-296) and the Bristol Myers Company for supporting research on the platinum-based antitumour agents. One author (J.C.D.) is also thankful to the library staff of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics, Gottingen, West Germany, for their help with literature searches concerning the review. 

Research work on the mode of action of these compounds furnished the theoretical basis for the chemical control of insects by means of chemosterilants, and most of the compounds showing such action were first described as antitumour agents. In no other field is the interaction between plant protection and human therapy so close as that between the chemotherapy of cancer and insect control by chemosterilants. The capacity of these substances to interfere with the biosynthesis of DNA served as the common theoretical basis. In addition to other effects such as antitumour and antimitotic effects, deactivation of viruses, etc., a characteristic outcome of this interference is the mutagenic effect and, closely related to this, inhibition of reproduction (Bofkovec, 1962). 

Yasuhiro, M. and Maeda, H. (1986) A new concept for macromolecular therapeutics in cancer chemotherapy mechanism of tumourotropic accumulation of proteins and the antitumour agent smancs. Cancer Res. 46 6387-6392. 

Gianasi E, Wash M, Evagorou EG, Keddle A, Wilson G, Duncan R. HPMA copolymer platinates as novel antitumour agents in vitro properties, pharmacokinetics and antitumour activity in vivo. Eur J Cancer 1999 35 994-1002. 

The anthracyclines are among the most important antitumour agents for the treatment of hmnan cancer due to their broad efficacy. However, their severe toxicity has limited their usefulness and consequently stimulated an intensive synthetic effort directed towards the synthesis of less toxic analogues. Nearly 300 papers have been published detailing the synthetic effort towards the anthracyclines. Of this number less than 10 percent (24) have resulted in optically active compounds while the remainder have produced racemic material. Since one enantiomer is usually the biologically active one there is a definite need for better synthetic routes to the anthracyclines. 

Todorov DK, Zeller WJ (1992) Antiproliferative activity of the non-myelotoxic antitumour agent of plant origin thaliblastine on two human glioma cell lines. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 118(2) 83-86 Tolmachev A1 (Senior ed) (1976) Atlas Aieeilov 1 Resursov Lekarstvennuikh Rastenii SSSR (Atlas of distributions and resources of medicineil plants of the USSR), Moscow (in Russian)... 

P. Kopf-Maier and H. Kopf The Metallocene Dihalides — A Class of Organo-metallic Early Transition Metal Complexes as Antitumour Agents (Platinum Coordination Complexes in Cancer Chemotherapy, Eds. M. P. Hacker, E. B. Douple, and I. H. Krakoff) p. 279. Martinus Nijhoff, Boston (1984). 

Schein, P. S., McMenamin, M. G. and Anderson, T. (1973) 3-tetraacetyl gIucopyranos-2-yl-l-(2-ohloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea, an antitumour agent with modified bone marrow toxicity. Cancer Res., 33, 2005. 

Sedletska Y, Giraud-Panis MJ, Malinge JM (2005) Cisplatin is a DNA-damaging antitumour compound triggering multifactorial biochemical responses in cancer cells importance of apoptotic pathways. Curr Med Chem Anticancer Agents 5(3) 251-265... 

Ferlini C, Distefano M, Pignatelli F, et al. Antitumour activity of novel taxanes that act at the same time as cytotoxic agents and P-glycoprotein inhibitors. BrJ Cancer 2000 83(12) 1762-1768. 

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