Abstract
The role of the marine environment in the development of anticancer drugs has been widely reviewed, particularly in recent years. However, the innovation in terms of clinical benefits has not been duly emphasized, although there are important breakthroughs associated with the use of marine-derived anticancer agents that have altered the current paradigm in chemotherapy. In addition, the discovery and development of marine drugs has been extremely rewarding with significant scientific gains, such as the discovery of new anticancer mechanisms of action as well as novel molecular targets. Approximately 50 years since the approval of cytarabine, the marine-derived anticancer pharmaceutical pipeline includes four approved drugs and eighteen agents in clinical trials, six of which are in late development. Thus, the dynamic pharmaceutical pipeline consisting of approved and developmental marine-derived anticancer agents offers new hopes and new tools in the treatment of patients afflicted with previously intractable types of cancer.
Highlights
The role of the marine environment in the development of anticancer drugs has been widely reviewed, in recent years
The efficacy and safety as a single agent were demonstrated in two pivotal phase 2 studies; brentuximab vedotin led to an objective response rate of 75% in patients with histologically documented CD30+ relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma, leading to complete remission in 33% of the patients and tumor reductions detected in 94% [41]
On the basis of the compelling objective responses observed in the two trials, brentuximab vedotin received accelerated approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2011 for the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma patients that relapsed after autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT), or after at least two prior lines of multidrug regimens, with ineligibility for ASCT in the second line setting and for the treatment of systemic anaplastic large-cell lymphoma after failure of at least one multi-agent chemotherapy regimen [43]
Summary
Soon after the landmark discovery of the DNA double helix structure, the isolation of two arabinose-containing nucleosides from the sponge Cryptotethya crypta [1] was the first step for the development of cytarabine (1) (Figure 1), the first approved marine-derived drug [2]. With over 50% of the new bioactive marine natural products isolated during the period of 1985–2012 exhibiting cytotoxicity toward experimental models of cancer [5], marine bioprospection has been rewarding in the area of cancer, with four chemotherapeutic agents already approved and eighteen additional drug candidates enriching the oncological pipeline (Table 1). The development of these anticancer drugs corroborated the unmeasurable impact of natural products on the current. F chemotherapy-induced neutropenia; g diffuse large B-cell lymphoma; h monomethyl auristatin F
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