Anthraquinone Derivatives as Potent Anti-Cancer Agents

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Cancer is one of the high-mortality-causing diseases in the world. It causes a serious threat to mankind with an estimated 10 million deaths every year. Identifying novel drug candidates for the treatment of various types of cancer is a prime research area in medicinal chemistry. Even though many drug molecules are used in cancer treatment, they suffer from various drawbacks, such as low selectivity, toxicity, and resistance to new tumor cells. Hence, the search for novel anti-cancer agents is a continuous process in order to develop more efficient and less toxic chemotherapeutic agents. Among them, anthraquinone, a diketo derivative of anthracene, has gained much interest in the search for novel anticancer agents. Since anthraquinone is present in various natural products, it has diverse biological properties, which makes it a prominent scaffold in medicinal chemistry. Many anthraquinone classes of anticancer agents have been developed in the last decade and remain the first treatment option for cancer. The search for novel anthraquinone derivatives by the modification of the core structure or by the introduction of newer substituents to attain higher selectivity and efficacy has gained considerable interest recently. This book chapter concisely summarizes the anticancer activities of various anthraquinone derivatives reported by researchers, either derived from natural sources or synthetically prepared.