Is the Next Cisplatin Already in Our Laboratory?

ABSTRACT

Since the serendipitous discovery of cisplatin, thousands of inorganic molecules have been synthesized in search of new drugs endowed with powerful anticancer activity and safe profile. As matter of fact, this “magic” and desired combination to date remains unmet. On the other side, after cisplatin, only two additional platinum-based drugs -that have been substantially designed as cisplatin-like molecules- have been approved at the global level, i.e., carboplatin and oxaliplatin. Accordingly, here, we try to summarize and highlight some relevant reasons for this “lack” of newly approved molecules. Also, we try to rationalize what are the critical steps in the discovery process (and approval) of new ameliorated anticancer metallodrugs, contributing to stimulate an open and critical scientific debate.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Inorganic drug development
• metallodrugs
• drug discovery
• clinical trials
• cancer

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge all the colleagues and researchers that shared with us their thoughts and point of view contributing to fruitful and stimulating discussion on the topics included in the present manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

DC, AP and TM conceived the idea of writing this paper, however, this work is the result of discussions and reflections by all the authors. All the authors contributed to the writing and revision.