Doxorubicin: an update on anticancer molecular action, toxicity and novel drug delivery systems

Objectives The frontline drug doxorubicin has been used for treating cancer for over 30 years. While providing a cure in select cases, doxorubicin causes toxicity to most major organs, especially life-threatening cardiotoxicity, which forces the treatment to become dose-limiting. Key findings Doxorubicin is known to bind to DNA-associated enzymes, intercalate with DNA base pairs, and target multiple molecular targets to produce a range of...