Abstract

One of the rapidly developing fields now a days in medicine is the application of inorganic chemistry, elegantly it is seen that the novel therapeutic and diagnostic metals and metal complexes are now having an impact on medical practice. Progress in bio-coordination chemistry is crucial for improving the design of compounds to reduce toxic side effects. A lot of metal-based drugs are widely used in the treatment of cancer. Other than platinum complexes, attention is now being focused on developing new coordination compounds with improved pharmacological properties and a broader range of antitumor activity. This review focuses on recent advances in the development of lanthanide based coordination complexes as anticancer agents. These complexes are classified based on different ligands such as phenanthroline, plumbagin, quercetin, quinolone, Schiff bases, coumarin, transferrin, 5-fluorouracil, acridine, benzothiazole, porphyrins and cocaine, and miscellaneous ligands. These complexes may provide a broader spectrum of antitumor activity. The dominant pharmacological applications of lanthanides are as agents in radio immunotherapy and photodynamic therapy. Lanthanides are also of interest because of their therapeutic radioisotopes.