Novel conjugation and combination strategies of mitomycin C with special focus on the current patent literature

Abstract

Mitomycin C (MMC) is among the most effective anticancer drugs used for the treatment of a broad variety of tumours. This review summarises patents and papers dealing with new conjugates and combination therapies using MMC published during the period 1998 – 2005. The first part of this review focuses on the chemistry, pharmacokinetics and biological evaluation of low and macromolecular weight conjugates of MMC. The second part describes patents on novel therapeutic strategies that combine innovative anticancer therapies (e.g., oncolytic viruses, antisense oligonucleotides) with MMC. In addition, these new developments are critically discussed with special respect to their potential clinical relevance.

Keywords::

• antibody
• antisense oligonucleotide
• cancer
• conjugates
• liposomes
• mitomycin C
• oncolytic viruses