Zinc rivals platinum in the fight against cancer

New zinc complexes that show promising anticancer activity could be used as an alternative to platinum based drugs, claim Italian scientists.

Platinum-based drugs, such as cisplatin, are effective chemotherapy agents but they cause nasty side effects and tumours can become resistant to them. New inorganic complexes based on metals such as gold and titanium have recently been proposed as effective alternatives for chemotherapy. Now, Daniela Pucci at the University of Calabria, has discovered that low cost zinc complexes show promising anticancer activity.   More...

http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/cb/Volume/2010/05/zinc_rivals.asp