Platinum-based agents for individualized cancer treatment.

Platinum-based agents are important drugs or drug candidates for cancer chemotherapy. Traditional platinum drugs including the globally approved cisplatin, carboplatin and oxaliplatin are neutral platinum (II) complexes with two amine ligands and two additional ligands that can be aquated for further binding with DNA. The platinum-DNA adducts can impede cellular process and lead to cellular apoptosis. Tumor resistance to platinum drugs has become a very challenging problem to overcome. Individualized cancer treatment using different strategies to circumvent the platinum-drug resistance in cancer patients is of great importance. Structural modification of traditional platinum drugs, combination therapy using platinum drugs with other agents and improved delivery of platinum drug to tumor sites are major strategies developed to overcome existed problems in chemotherapy using traditional platinum drugs. Platinum-based agents with respect to their structure, mechanism of action and strategies developed for improved efficacy in cancer treatment have been summarized in this paper with the perspective of developing new platinum drugs or platinum-based therapy for individualized cancer treatment.