Mitomycin C analogues with secondary amines at position 7

A series of mitomycin C analogues with secondary amines at position 7 was prepared from mitomycin A. Eleven of the 20 new compounds in this series were more active than mitomycin C against P-388 murine leukemia, and 2 of these 11 were significantly less leukopenic. The two substituents conferring these superior properties were 4-formylpiperazine and 2-cyanoaziridine. No quantitative correlations could be made among antitumor activities and physicochemical properties of the analogues, although the relative ease of quinone reduction might be related to the good potencies (minimum effective doses) of many of them.