Abstract

Doxorubicin: Anticancer Antibiotics details the development of doxorubicin as a wide-spectrum antitumor antibiotic. The book begins by tracing the discovery and development of doxorubicin, highlighting factors such as (a) the involvement of organic chemistry at an early stage, which allowed the rapid identification of doxorubicin and ensured its prompt availability for the clinical trials; (b) the well-established, pioneering expertise in experimental chemotherapy of Professor Aurelio di Marco and his group at Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan; and (c) the highly motivated interest of experienced clinicians.
The remaining chapters provide an overview of basic studies in the area of medicinal chemistry and related fields that have resulted from doxorubicin development. Such studies have been concerned with both biochemical and biophysical investigations at the molecular level and at different levels of biological organization. A large body of work aimed at developing synthetic procedures for the drug and for new related analogs of potential clinical usefulness has also been carried out.