Early Transition Metal‐Based Antitumor Complexes

Cancer is a major disease that seriously threatens human health worldwide. The development of highly effective and low toxicity anticancer drugs has always been a research hotspot. Transition metal complexes, as antitumor drugs, offer multiple advantages, including the synergistic effect of targeting multiple sites, which reduces drug resistance, strong structural adjustability for optimizing the efficacy of the medicine, unique photodynamic/photothermal therapy capabilities, and the ability to integrate diagnosis and treatment. Early transition metals refer to the d-block metal elements from Group IIIB to Group VIIB in the periodic table. In recent years, antitumor complexes of early transition metals have received extensive attention due to their unique mechanisms of action and potential therapeutic effects. In this review, we summarize the latest advancements in the anticancer effects of metal complexes of Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Mo, Tc, and Re, which represent a new type of anticancer drug with multiple mechanisms, and are expected to provide more effective solutions for precise tumor treatment. With the deepening of research and the development of technology, early transition metal-based drugs may play a more important role in precision medicine.