Cancer remains a leading cause of death worldwide. Despite breakthrough clinical therapies for the treatment of cancer using platinum and arsenic compounds, metal complexes have received relatively little attention from industrial anticancer drug discovery programs over the last few decades. The chemical diversity and versatility offered by metal complexes, arising from the choice of metal, oxidation state, redox state, number and type of ligands, coordination geometry, and their magnetic and optical properties, provides an opportunity to develop novel metallopharmaceuticals that can overcome some of the shortfalls associated with current state-of-the-art cancer treatments. Herein we highlight selected recent developments and novel ideas currently being explored by scientists to uncover the next generation of anticancer metallopharmaceuticals with clinically relevant efficacies.

癌症仍然是全球范围内主要的死亡原因。尽管使用铂和砷化合物治疗癌症的临床疗法取得了突破性进展，但在过去的几十年中，金属络合物在工业抗癌药物发现计划中受到的关注相对较少。金属络合物提供的化学多样性和多功能性，源于金属的选择，氧化态，氧化还原态，配体的数量和类型，配位几何以及它们的磁性和光学性质，为开发可以克服某些挑战的新型金属药物提供了机会与当前最先进的癌症治疗方法有关的不足。