Vitamin E analogues: a new class of inducers of apoptosis with selective anti-cancer effects.

In spite of unrelenting effort, the net incidence of neoplastic diseases appears not to have been curbed. While some types of cancer have been suppressed significantly, others are either stagnating or on the increase. Therefore, the need for a cure is imperative, in particularly a drug or combination of drugs that would be selective for malignant cells, i.e. with as low secondary toxicity as possible. Recent data strongly suggest that analogues of vitamin E, epitomised by the most studied alpha-tocopheryl succinate (alpha-TOS), may meet the need for the coveted drugs with a selective anti-neoplastic effect. The reasons for this optimism are reviewed in this article.