Comparative Analysis between Two Anticancer Drugs: Platinum Complexes and Camptothecin in Ovarian Cancer Treatment

Ovarian cancer (OC) has a high mortality rate for women. Except for those screening tools that help discover tumour cells, chemotherapy plays an indispensable role in treating ovarian cancer. Nowadays, an increasing number of anticancer drugs are developed, including synthetic and naturally extracted ones. Among these, platinum-based drug and camptothecin (CPT) are two typical anticancer agents commonly used in clinical area. They exhibit certain strengths in improving efficacy in tumour treatment and inhibiting metastasis. However, these two compounds show some common disadvantages, including systemic toxicity, side effects and drug resistance. Furthermore, the dose-limiting toxicity for cisplatin and leucopaenia of CPT, limit their antitumour performance. Hence, in this work, it makes comparisons between these two different drugs from mechanisms, common synthesis methods and targeted drug delivery systems. Additionally, a new and efficient compound, a Pt(II)-camptothecin coordination complex (Pt-CPT) is also discussed, which exhibits better antitumour ability than the two single drugs.