Non platinum metal complexes as anti-cancer drugs

The development of metal complexes with platinum central atoms such as cisplatin or carboplatin had an enormous impact on current cancer chemotherapy. However, the spectrum of cancers that can be treated with platinum agents is narrow and treatment efficacy suffers from side effects and resistance phenomena. These unresolved problems in platinum-based anti-cancer therapy have stimulated increased research efforts in the search for novel non platinum-containing metal species as cytostatic agents. Preclinical and clinical investigations showed that the development of new metal agents with modes of action different from cisplatin is possible. Thus, complexes with iron, cobalt, or gold central atoms have shown promising results in preclinical studies and compounds with titanium, ruthenium, or gallium central atoms have already been evaluated in phase I and phase II trials. This review covers some relevant examples of preclinical and clinical research on novel non platinum metal complexes.