Researchers create copolymer to hold drugs that incapacitate defenses of tumor cells

Antitumor agents must kill off cancer cells while protecting healthy tissue and create no toxic side-effects. A novel approach based on "self-immolative" polyferrocenes—copolymers that split apart into their components as soon as they enter a tumor cell—could meet these demands. The drugs they hold then synergistically cause an abrupt increase in free radicals and incapacitate the defenses of tumor cells, as reported by a research team in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.