Classification of Metal-Based Anticancer Chemotherapeutic Agents

3d metal-based chemotherapeutic agents are considered as the promising viable options for the treatment of solid malignancies as compared to cisplatin which exhibited high systemic toxicity resulting in adverse reactions and further were found inactive against many resistant cancer cells and secondary metastatic conditions. Since these metal ions have a tendency to coordinate to diverse ligand scaffolds, a huge number of structurally well-characterized complexes that could act as potent anticancer agents have emerged, wherein the ligand imparts a distinct functionality viz., facilitating uptake in cells, solubility in water, bioisosteric replacements, and directing to the specific pathway of cell death apoptosis vs necrosis, binding to a specific domain at the target sites, overcoming considerably the shortcomings of platinate class of anticancer drugs. The potential chemotherapeutic agents utilizing metals for anticancer treatment have been categorized according to the structure of the ligand framework incorporated in the metal complexes as given below.