Cisplatin is a chemotherapy drug which is used to treat cancers
including: sarcoma, small cell lung cancer, germ cell tumors, lymphoma,
and ovarian cancer. While it is often considered an alkylating agent,
it contains no alkyls groups and does not instigate alkylating reactions,
so it is properly designated as an alkylating-like drug. Cisplatin
is platinum-based and the first in its drug class. Other drugs in
this class include carboplatin, a drug with fewer and less severe
side effects introduced in the 1980s, and oxaliplatin, a drug which
is part of the FOLFOX treatment for colorectal cancer. The other
names for cisplatin are cisplatinum and cis-diamminedichloridoplatinum(II)
(CDDP).
The way that cisplatin operates is by forming a platinum complex
inside of a cell which binds to DNA and cross-links DNA. When
DNA is cross-linked in this manner, it causes the cells to undergo
apoptosis, or systematic cell death. One of the methods it uses
causes apoptosis through cross-linking is by damaging the DNA
so that the repair mechanisms for DNA are activated, and once
the repair mechanisms are activated and the cells are found to
not be salvageable, the death of those cells is triggered instead.
How cisplatin
works
|
Cisplatin
How it Works