Chemical and biotechnological developments in organotin cancer chemotherapy

This review provides a substantial knowledge on the action mode of organotins in cancer chemotherapy. The coordinating ability of organotin compounds towards DNA and cancer cells is discussed. Most of the organotins tested are DNA-targeted and mitotic, the action mode occurring via a gene-mediated pathway. These potential anti-cancer drugs are actually being studied widely, and whilst they are efficacious and perhaps curative against a select number of neoplasias, suffer from a variety of deficiencies, notably severe systemic toxicity and a tendency to elicit drug resistance.