Throughout the past few decades, the number of cancer cases has gradually risen on a year-on-year scale. For the purpose of battling cancer, various efficacious substances have been prepared, with a significant portion composed of platinum(II) complexes. However, the need to avoid the side effects that those drugs cause encouraged the invention of new metal-based drugs, among which gold(I) complexes are representative. This review will then introduce the respective features of platinum(II) and gold(I) antitumor complexes, afterwards analyze different theories on the mechanisms of action for gold(I) complexes, and finally describe the recent development of some potentially antitumor novel gold(I) complexes, including the use of different ligands, the influence from the substitution pattern and chirality of the same ligands, etc. Finally, several critical challenges were proposed. This review accelerates the rational design of gold(I)-based chemotherapeutics with improved safety and mechanism of action.
Ruichen Lan (2026) studied this question.