Marine-derived anticancer agents in clinical trials

Anticancer agents may be derived either from the isolation of an active lead compound occurring spontaneously in nature or by novel chemical synthesis in the laboratory. There are examples of successful drugs being derived from both sources, which have had a profound impact on the natural history of various types of cancer. The treatment of lymphomas and acute leukaemias with the use of combination chemotherapy, including anthracyclines and vinca alkaloids, are examples of the contribution of nature. In contrast, agents such as 5-fluorouracil, methotrexate and more recently, the humanised anti-CD20 antibody rituximab and the tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib are examples of synthetic compounds, which were designed with a clear rationale, that are routinely used in patients with solid tumours and haematological malignancies. Until recently, the tradition in natural product derived anticancer drug development was to rely almost exclusively on the screening of terrestrial sources (plant extracts and fermentation products) for their cytotoxic properties. Although C-nucleosides obtained from Caribbean sponge were the initial inspiration for the synthesis of antiviral substituted nucleosides and the successful anticancer agent citarabine, active against leukaemias and lymphomas, the contribution of marine compounds as a source of anticancer agents was modest. In recent years, the improvements in the technology of deep-sea collection and aquaculture added to the growing recognition of the tremendous biodiversity present in the marine world, and has contributed to the growing interest of exploring the oceans as a potential source of new anticancer candidates. This is reflected in the number of marine-derived compounds undergoing preclinical and early clinical development. In this paper, the authors discuss the available literature on anticancer agents that have reached clinical trials, such as didemnin beta, aplidine, dolastatin-10, bryostatin-1 and ecteinascidin-743 (ET-743, trabectedin), as well as other promising compounds still undergoing tests in the laboratory.