Natural Products as Cytotoxic Agents

Abstract

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the occurrence of cancers has increased not only in First World countries but also in those countries considered to have a lower standard of living, according to a world cancer report issued in 2008 for the IARC Nonserial Publication by Boyle and Levin. So widespread is cancer, in its various forms, that most adults have either had family members or had friends who have been afflicted by the disease. Projected figures for cancers indicate, in the aforementioned publication, that 12 million cancer cases were diagnosed in 2008 alone and that the number of cancer victims has doubled since 1978. Coupled to the psychological impact that a diagnosis has on an individual is the cost of treatment that must also be considered. Again, according to the National Cancer Institute (December 2008) these costs are estimated to be US$147 billion by 2020. An article, published in USA Today, claims that new cancer cases in 2008 were projected to be 40,480. And the cost for elderly Medicare patients will be US$21.1 billion for 5 years of treatment for the period 2004–2009. Sadly, one in eight patients with advanced stages of cancer will turn down the offer of recommended care because of costs. While cases may have been misdiagnosed in the twentieth century, the sophisticated techniques available today give a clearer graph of the incidence of the disease. With advanced diagnostics, there has been a concomitant advance in anticancer chemotherapy. Keywords: cancer; cytotoxic agents; DNA; therapeutic agents