Doxorubicin Analogs Show Potent In Vitro Anti-Breast Cancer Activity

In the US 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women. Doxorubicin (DOX) is a potent chemotherapeutic agent that has been used to treat cancer since the 1970’s. Although DOX shows anti-breast cancer activity, it produces cardiac damage that is both cumulative and irreversible, limiting the lifetime dose that can be used. Since DOX is one of the primary drugs used to treat breast cancer, it is critical to find new treatments that will more effectively treat breast tumors while decreasing cardiotoxic side effects. In this study, several DOX analogs (PDOX, GPX150, GPX160) containing key structural substitutions were tested for their anti-proliferative activity against a panel of human breast cancer cell lines. All of the analogs showed improved activity relative to DOX. This suggests that these analogs may be useful in successful treatment of breast cancer at even lower doses and may dramatically reduce the occurrence of unwanted side effects.