Anniversary Lecture: Organometallic Anticancer Drugs with Novel Modes of Action

Many types of cancer are now treated quite effectively by drugs that are increasingly designed and made on the basis of sound knowledge of their mode of action. Nonetheless, there are very many different types of cancer and despite these advances, there are some tumours that remain difficult to treat.

For example, treatment of many classes of tumours is made difficult because they are actually resistant to drugs. This may be because uptake of the drugs is difficult, because they become inactive in the body or because the body excretes them too readily. This lecture will describe the preparation and action of new drugs based on the organometallic complexes of ruthenium. These are able to overcome certain types of drug resistance by acting in a very targeted fashion and also show promise in the treatment of invasive tumours. The study of these compounds in combination with clinically approved compounds will also be discussed.

Refreshments will be served from 17.45.