Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US who are testing phenanthriplatin, a new experimental drug based on platinum, say it kills cancer cells better and may provide a more effective alternative to cisplatin, the most commonly used approved platinum chemotherapy drug.

Platinum-based chemotherapy drugs are among the most powerful and widely used against cancer. However, they have toxic side effects, and tumors can become resistant to them.

Cisplatin, the most common platinum chemotherapy drug, was first approved in the US in 1978. It is particularly effective against testicular cancer, and is also used in the treatment of ovarian and some lung cancers, as well as lymphoma and other cancers.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), senior author Stephen J Lippard and colleagues suggest phenanthriplatin not only kills cancer cells better than cisplatin, but it may also evade cancer-cell resistance to conventional platinum-based drugs.