Therapeutic uses of coordination compounds

Abstract

This chapter discusses how coordination compounds have found application in medicine in the treatment, management, and diagnosis of disease. It focuses on two ways in which this occurs: the application of therapeutic chelating agents and the therapeutic use of preformed coordination compounds. Therapeutic chelating agents have been used to remove excess metals from the body. These might have arisen from metabolic disorders such as Wilson's disease, a hereditary genetic disorder in which the body is unable to metabolize copper in the normal way. The chapter then looks at the development of chelation therapy. Although preformed metal complexes have been used in medicine, it is perhaps the application of platinum complexes in cancer therapy that is the best-known example of the use of coordination complexes in the treatment of disease.