An Insight into Cancer and Anticancer Drugs (original) (raw)

A-Review on Anticancer Agents: Conventional Drugs and Novel Target Specific Inhibitors

Oriental Journal Of Chemistry

The second-most common reason for death globally and a significant issue for human health is cancer. The focus of the current review is to discuss cancer treatment and issues with anti-cancer medications. Nearly all cell types can develop cancer, a very varied group of approximately 200 illnesses with at least one factor in common “uncontrolled cellular development” that results in aberrant cell proliferation. In solid tumors, cancerous cells may remain localized or in situ at the location of the initial lesion, or they may become locally progressed or metastatic to distant site. Ninety percent of all cancer-related fatalities are due to by metastasis. It is the primary determinant of whether malignancy is high-risk, requiring aggressive treatment, or low-risk, curable by active surveillance, surgical removal, or adjuvant therapy. Recent advancements in computational drug discovery methodologies have not only produced important insights into the field of cancer therapy but have also...

Recent advances in anticancer drug discovery: A review

International Journal of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Analysis, 2023

Cancer is a process of uncontrolled cell proliferation that leads to the development of an abnormally growing tumor, determining initially a local disease that might spread, impairing other organs or important processes. One of the most fatal diseases in recent times, cancer kills many lives each year. The effective management of this condition has been impacted by the variances in the disease across the globe, the impact of the medical facilities that are available, and other socioeconomic issues. The aim of this study was to summaries previously published articles regarding recent advances in anticancer drug discoveries. In this review, previously published literature regarding recent advances in anticancer drug discovery collected from journals through PubMed Central, Google Scholar, and Science Direct from March 20 to May 12 was identified well, and points that I assumed were important and recent (2017–2023) were included.Based on my searches, numerous discoveries are identified and grouped as anticancer drug targets, plant derived advances, chemical compounds with in vivo or in vitro cytotoxic drug discovery, and repurposing advances. Based on a variety of articles published by scholars, this review summarizes some recent advancements in anticancer drug discovery. Under this broad topic, promising and clinically evidenced drug targets for anticancer drug binding, some drugs repurposed for cancer treatment, plant-derived advances in cancer therapy, and finally advances in novel chemical compounds in the area of cancer therapy are reviewed. Keywords: Cancer, Drug discovery, Drug targets, Drug repurposing, Cytotoxic drug 1

Recent developments in cancer chemotherapy oriented towards new targets

Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets, 2005

Malignant diseases are one of the major causes of death in the western world. Patients are treated by surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Chemotherapeutic treatment is used to decrease the tumour burden and to eliminate malignant cells. However, in most cases, resistance against chemotherapy develops. Therefore, there is a permanent need for new additional treatment strategies and chemotherapeutic combination regimens. In the present review article, the authors try to highlight the most promising approaches and summarise a selection of potential targets and compounds which might become alternative treatment options against malignant diseases. Due to the high number of scientific articles and the rapid developments in the area of cancer research, the authors can only mention a few selected targets and treatment options; however, the review focuses on new and notably important targets and compounds.

The role of pharmacology in anticancer drug development

ADMET and DMPK

Drug development consists of many sequential and parallel steps; failure in one of the steps can lead to discontinuation of the process. The process is time-consuming and very expensive, especially the clinical phase. In order to enhance cancer drug development in the 1980s, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) adopted a new screening system using 60 different tumour cell lines from various histologies. All standard drugs were tested in this panel and it is still open for testing of new chemical entities (NCE) of potential interest. The European NCI compounds initiative, a collaborative programme of the NCI, the Cancer Research Campaign (CRC; now CRUK) and the Pharmacology and Molecular Mechanism Group (PAMM) of the EORTC (European Organization on Research and Treatment of Cancer), was initiated in 1993. The programme aimed to help the NCI reducing its backlog of in vivo testing by further evaluation of interesting European compounds using a pharmacologically directed approach. Cons...

Drug Targets for Cancer Treatment: An Overview

Medicinal Chemistry, 2015

Cancer is one of the major cause of death worldwide. Malignant cells display metabolic changes, when compared to normal cells, because of both genetic and epigenetic alterations. Number of drugs being used for the cancer treatment follows different mechanisms of action. Therapeutic strategies include targeting of drugs at specific genes or proteins/enzymes found in cancer cells or the internal tissue environment which contributes to growth and survival of these cells. Targeted therapy is often used along with chemotherapy and other treatments to restrict the growth and spread of cancer cells. During the past few decades, targeted therapy has emerged as a promising approach for the development of selective anticancer agents. There is a class of targeted therapy drugs called angiogenesis inhibitors which focus on blocking the development of new blood vessels in tumor tissues. In addition, anticancer drugs also include DNA intercalators, DNA synthesis inhibitors, transcription regulators, enzyme inhibitors etc. This review focuses on major classes of anticancer drug targets and their therapeutic importance.

Development of anti-cancer drugs

Discovery medicine

Every new anti-cancer drug or drug combination is evaluated for safety and efficacy before being approved. Clinical development of cytotoxic anticancer drugs classically follows three main phases. Phase I trials represent the first administration of a new drug or combination to human beings. Their primary goal is to determine the recommended phase two dose and also to collect toxicity, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data. Phase II trials are screening studies aimed at identifying signals of anti-tumor activity in a specific tumor type and setting. Phase III trials aim to compare the efficacy of a new treatment with standard of care and can lead to regulatory approval when positive. The recent emergence of molecularly targeted agents has challenged the traditional developmental pathway for anti-cancer drugs. Using biomarker enriched patient populations has been successful for a few agents. Otherwise, new types of trials have been proposed for these agents in an attempt to elucid...

Current Approaches in Targeting Cancerous Cells and Novel Anticancer Drug Designing

2016

This review describes the current approaches in targeting cancerous cells and novel anticancer drug designing highlighting the identification and characterization of the biologically important lesions produced on DNA by important DNA-reactive drugs, molecular strategies to improve the sequence selectivity of existing groups of DNA-reactive drugs. The design of mechanism-based screens to identify new classes of drugs that react with DNA and associated targets the design of new drug classes based upon the identification of pharmacologically selective receptors on, or associated with DNA have also been described.

Novel Anticancer Strategies II

Pharmaceutics

Owing to the exceptional complexity of the development and progression of cancer, diverse cancer types are alarmingly increasing worldwide [...]