cancers Review Platinum Complexes in Colorectal Cancer and Other Solid Tumors Beate Köberle 1,* and Sarah Schoch 2 1 Department of Food Chemistry and Toxicology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Adenauerring 20a, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany 2 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Lund University, Scheelevägen 2, 223 81 Lund, Sweden;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +49-721-608-42933 Simple Summary: Cisplatin is successfully used for the treatment of various solid cancers. Unfortu- nately, it shows no activity in colorectal cancer. The resistance phenotype of colorectal cancer cells is mainly caused by alterations in p53-controlled DNA damage signaling and/or defects in the cellular mismatch repair pathway. Improvement of platinum-based chemotherapy in cisplatin-unresponsive cancers, such as colorectal cancer, might be achieved by newly designed cisplatin analogues, which retain activity in unresponsive tumor cells. Moreover, a combination of cisplatin with biochemical modulators of DNA damage signaling might sensitize cisplatin-resistant tumor cells to the drug, thus providing another strategy to improve cancer therapy. Abstract: Cisplatin is one of the most commonly used drugs for the treatment of various solid neoplasms, including testicular, lung, ovarian, head and neck, and bladder cancers. Unfortunately, the therapeutic efficacy of cisplatin against colorectal cancer is poor. Various mechanisms appear to contribute to cisplatin resistance in cancer cells, including reduced drug accumulation, enhanced drug detoxification, modulation of DNA repair mechanisms, and finally alterations in cisplatin Citation: Köberle, B.; Schoch, S. DNA damage signaling preventing apoptosis in cancer cells. Regarding colorectal cancer, defects in Platinum Complexes in Colorectal Cancer and Other Solid Tumors.