A Review of Recent Progress on the Anticancer Activity of Heterocyclic Compounds

Cancer is one of the most daunting illnesses in the world as compared to many other human diseases. This review article aims to summarize the literature that is already published based on heterocyclic anticancer compounds. Under this broad topic we try to shed a light on anticancer potentiality of oxygen-, sulfur-, and nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds, such as quinolines, pyrroles, pyrimidines, pyridines, indoles, also sulfonamides linked heterocycles, benzimidazoles and oxadiazoles.

1 Introduction

1.1 Drugs in Use for Cancer Treatment

1.2 Recently Discovered Anticancer Drugs

2 Various Classes of Compounds as Anticancer Agents

2.1 Quinoline Derivatives as Anticancer Agents

2.2 Benzimidazoles as Anticancer Agents

2.3 Indole: A Privileged Scaffold for the Design of Anticancer Agents

2.4 Pyrimidine Derivatives as Anticancer Agents

2.5 Pyridine Derivatives as Anticancer Agents

2.6 Pyrrole Derivatives as Anticancer Agents

2.7 Sulfonamides linked with heterocycles as Anticancer Agents

2.8 Oxadiazole and Its Derivatives as Anticancer Compounds

2.9 Benzothiazole-Triazole Hybrids as Anticancer Compounds

3 Conclusion