Anti-Cancer agents in medicinal chemistry (Formerly current medicinal chemistry - Anti-cancer agents).

摘要

Cancer metastasis is the most life threatening event in patients with solid tumours. As a result, understanding the underlying mechanisms and searching for factors that control the metastatic spread of cancer cells are critical in the area of cancer research. Furthermore, agents that interfere with the metastasis of cancer cells are of great value in cancer treatment. Of the complex nature of cancer metastasis, a few events are key to the metastatic process, namely, loss of cell adhesiveness (to each other), breakdown of the basement membrane and extracellular matrix, intravasation and extravasation, angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis. There are few factors that are as widely involved in the regulation of metastatic spread of cancer as hepatocyte growth factor (HGF, also known as scatter factor).