ABSTRACT
Antitumor agents are being sought widely among both organic and inorganic compounds. In addition to the elements that usually form organic compounds, forty more elements from the Periodic Chart have been tested for special antitumor activity. Antitumor antibiotics and many other antitumor drugs have planar aromatic structures: this suggested that these genotoxic analogues might possess the ability to interact with purine and pyrimidine bases. The key role of DNA in the cell defines it as the most favourable target for cytotoxic antitumor drugs. However, DNA is the cell structure most protected from damage, and it is not very active chemically. The only difference between antitumor cytotoxic drugs and anti-infective agents is that their effect is aimed against the cells of their own host. Biological characteristics of parasitic and host cells differ more strongly than those of normal and cancer human cells.
