Synthesis of novel bis-anthraquinone derivatives and their biological evaluation as antitumor agents.

Cancer has become a major worldwide problem and drug resistance now is one of the most important problems in treatment of cancer. Anthraquinone derivatives represent one of the most important drugs that can be used in treatment of many types of cancer. In this study two series of novel bis-anthraquinone derivatives have been synthesized. Five of these compounds were chosen to be evaluated for their antitumor activity against human cancer cell lines by the National Cancer Institute (NCI, USA). Marked activity was shown for the tested compounds(2-6). The most active one was compound 6 with mean value -67.00 against all cell lines. Compounds 7 and 8 were found inactive.