Metallodrugs as Anticancer Chemotherapeutics and Diagnostic Agents: A Critical Patent Review (2010-2020)

The development of metallodrugs with potential applications in cancer treatment and diagnosis has been a hot topic since the approval and subsequent marketing of the anticancer drug cisplatin in 1978. Since then, thousands of metal-based derivatives have been reported and evaluated for their chemotherapeutic or tumor imaging properties, but only a very limited number gained clinical status. Nonetheless, research in the field has been increasing exponentially over the years, especially in a view to exploiting novel drug designing approaches and strategies aimed at improving pharmacological outcomes and, at the same time, reducing side-effects.

This review article reports on the patents filed during the last decade and strictly focusing on the development of metal-based anticancer and diagnostic agents. The goal is to identify the latest trends and designing strategies in the field, which would represent a valuable starting point to researchers interested in the development of metallodrugs.

The most relevant patents filed in the 2010-2020 timeframe have been retrieved from various databases using dedicated search engines (such as SciFinder, Google Patents, PatentPak, Espacenet, Global Dossier, PatentScope), sorted by type of metallodrug and screened to include those reporting a substantial amount of biological data.

The majority of patents here reviewed are concerned with metallodrugs (mostly platinum- based) showing interesting pharmacological properties but no specific tumor-targeting features. Nonetheless, some promising trends in the development of novel drug delivery strategies and/or metallodrugs with potential applications in targeted chemotherapy are envisaged.

In this review, the latest trends in the development of metallodrugs from recent patents are summarized and critically discussed. Such trends would be of interest not only to the scientific community but also to lay audiences aiming to broaden their knowledge of the field and industrial stakeholders potentially interested in the exploitation and commercialization of this class of pharmaceuticals.