Antitumor Agents Based on Metal-Organic Frameworks

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) hold great promise for biomedical applications owing to their unique properties. The porous structures make MOFs excellent candidates for the delivery of different drugs; the flexibility in choosing metal ions and organic ligands makes it feasible to prepare MOFs with intrinsic antitumor activities and further devise MOF-drug synergistic systems; many other types of antitumor agents could also be developed using MOFs as the precursors/templates. Thus, the past two decades have witnessed the great development of MOF-based drugs, especially in the antitumor field. This Minireview mainly focuses on the design and applications of MOF-based antitumor agents. Four aspects covering the whole field are introduced: MOFs as carriers, MOFs as antitumor agents, MOF-drug synergistic systems, and MOF-derived antitumor agents. The challenges and opportunities of MOFs for clinical antitumor applications are also discussed.