Facile Synthesis of Anticancer Drug NCX 4040 in Mild Conditions

A simple method is reported to synthesize an anticancer drug, NCX 4040, conveniently in mild conditions using silicon chemistry. A starting material, 4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol, was silylated selectively first to give tbutyldimethylsilyl 4-hydroxybenzyl ether, which was then converted to NCX 4040 by esterification, desilylation, hydrochlorination and nitration.