Iridium complexes in cancer treatment: a promising complement to Cis-platin –A mini review

Cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (II), Cis-platin, the first discovered chemotherapeutic drug, has been used for the treatment of many human cancers, including bladder, head and neck, lung, ovarian, and testicular cancers. However, the effectiveness of Cis- platin has been hindered by its several adverse effects. To avoid these adverse effects, scientists were eager to find alternatives: they introduced other Pt-analogues and even non-Pt-analogues as new drugs. Nonetheless, their clinical promise remains only partially fulfilled. In this review, the main goal is to describe the anticancer properties studied on Iridium complexes so that Iridium analogues may be considered as alternatives to Cis-platin. Research shows that Ir-analogues have a lot of biological activities; here mainly the anticancer activities (IC₅₀ values) are compared with Cis- platin. The collected data show that some Ir-complexes have promising anticancer activity, even more effective than Cis-platin.