cisplatin (AstraZeneca)

Cisplatin is a platinum-based cytotoxic chemotherapy agent that functions as a DNA alkylating-like agent. It enters cells and loses chloride ligands to form reactive platinum complexes that bind to DNA, primarily forming intra-strand cross-links. These cross-links distort the DNA structure, inhibiting replication and transcription, and ultimately triggering programmed cell death (apoptosis). In clinical development by AstraZeneca, cisplatin is utilized as a standard-of-care chemotherapy backbone, often in combination with gemcitabine and novel immunotherapy agents such as volrustomig (a PD-1/CTLA-4 bispecific antibody) or rilvegostomig (a PD-1/TIGIT bispecific antibody), particularly for the treatment of advanced hepatobiliary cancers and other solid tumors.

Brand names

Platinol

Other names

cis-platinumcis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II)