Bacteria-Derived Chemotherapeutic Agents for Cancer Therapy: A Brief Overview

Many antibiotics available at the clinic are natural products or derivatives of these products that originate from bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. After the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928, the discovery and extraction of antibiotics from natural sources expanded greatly. We can modify the chemical structure of natural antibiotics to improve their therapeutic efficiency or reduce their side effects. In recent decades, compounds have been extracted from bacteria that are the source of some important anticancer chemotherapy drugs for cancer management. In this article, some of these drugs are discussed.