Platinum drugs are extensively used in the clinic to treat cancer, often leading to a palliative response
rather than a cure. While DNA is considered to be the primary target of platinum drugs, there is no clear
relationship between cellular platinum accumulation, DNA platination and Pt-DNA adduct removal, and
herein we describe new mechanistic insights of platinum drugs related to the hallmarks of cancer and
how they interfere with the tumour microenvironment. We then proceed to describe the properties of
other metal drugs, including both non-targeted compounds that do not significantly interact with DNA
and targeted compounds that interfere more selectively with specific pathways responsible for tumour
growth and invasion. Our analysis of the cancer biology and the selected drugs allows us to propose possible
routes for future drug development based on metal scaffolds.
