Medicinal applications of heavy-metal compounds.

A brief summary of the key role for certain heavy-metal compounds in medicine is discussed, with a special focus on very recent findings in the following four topics: platinum anti-tumor compounds (novel mononuclear compounds, dinuclear compounds and trinuclear compounds with promising activity); ruthenium anti-tumor compounds (the first clinical trial for a Ru compound has begun); gadolinium NMR-imaging compounds (association with biomacromolecules is now possible); technetium compounds (the use of organometallic precursors opens a plethora of new species and enables the labeling of, for example, neurotransmitter molecules).