Synthesis of novel steroid derivatives derived from dehydroepiandrosterone as potential anticancer agents

A series of dehydroepiandrosterone derivatives containing dihydrazone unit was synthesized via a convenient condensation procedure, and which were evaluated for their potential anticancer activities. The preliminary assays indicated that some of the newly synthesized compounds exhibited good antitumor activities against human hepatocellular liver carcinoma (HepG2), heptoma (Huh-7), gastric cancer (BGC-823) and breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) cell lines compared with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), which might be considered as promising lead scaffold for further design and synthesis of potential anticancer agents.