Tricarbonyl η6 arene chromium (0) based antitumor agents

Novel arene chromium carbonyl complexed mustard agents have been prepared. The metal carbonyl group modulates mustard alkylative ability as evidenced by 4-NBP assay. Antitumor evaluation against the human colon tumor line HCT-116 however showed no clear correlation between alkylative ability and antitumor activity of the mustard agents, in part a consequence of the inherent cytotoxicity of the metal carbonyl group in this screen.