Anti-metastatics: an overview of drug candidates in current pipelines.

As the number of novel drugs that have entered the market in oncology has slowed in recent years, there has been a dramatic shift towards new therapeutic approaches. The majority of cancer patients die from metastasis formation, which has prompted the pharmaceutical industry to begin to investigate a new class of agents: anti-metastatics. This review provides an overview of the targets, mechanisms of action, and drug substances currently in the pharma pipeline to inhibit tumor cell migration and metastasis formation.