Table 1.

List of the anticancer drugs and prodrugs and the diseases in which they are most used.

Drug Classes	Active Compound	Prodrug	Diseases	Ref.
Antimetabolites	Mercaptopurine	Azathioprine	Acute lymphoblastic leukemia	[6,7]
	5-Fluorouracil	Capecitabine	Breast cancer, esophageal cancer, laryngeal cancer, gastrointestinal and genitourinary tract cancer	[8]
	Deoxyadenosine	Cladribine	Hairy cell leukemia	[9,10]
	1-β-D-arabinofuranoside 5′-triphosphate	Cytarabine	Acute myeloid leukemia	[11]
	9-beta-D-arabinosyl-2-fluoroadenine	Fludarabine	Chronic lymphocytic leukemia	[11]
	5-Fluorouracil		Different types of neoplasms	[8]
	Gemcitabine diphosphate and triphosphate	Gemcitabine	Solid cancers	[11]
	6-Mercaptopurine		Acute lymphoblastic leukemia	[7,11,12]
	Methotrexate		Several kinds of cancer, such as colon cancer	[13]
	6-Thioguanosine	6-Thioguanine	leukemias, lymphomas, mesothelioma, melanoma, biliary tract cancer, glioblastoma, osteosarcoma, soft tissue sarcoma, neuroendocrine tumors and lung, pancreatic and squamous cell carcinomas	[14,15]
	5-Fluorouracil	Floxuridine	Liver cancer	[6,16]
	Methyl-tetrahydrofolate	Leucovorin	Acute lymphoblastic leukemia	[17,18]
Alkylating agents	Busulfan		Chronic myelogenous leukemia	[19]
	Carmustine		Glioblastoma multiforme	[20]
	Acrolein and phosphoramide mustard	Cyclophosphamide	Several kinds of cancer and autoimmune disorders	[21,22]
	5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide	Dacarbazine	Malignant melanoma or sarcoma	[23]
	Lomustine		Brain tumors	[24]
	Mechlorethamine		Mycosis fungoides	[25]
	Melphalan		Multiple myeloma	[26]
	Azo-Procarbazine	Procarbazine	Hodgkin’s lymphoma	[27,28]
	Triethylenethio-phosphoramide	Thiotepa	Ovarian cancer, breast cancer and superficial bladder cancer	[29,30]
	Semustine		Lewis lung carcinoma, leukemia, metastatic brain tumor, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, malignant melanoma and lung carcinoma	[31]
Anthracyclines	Daunorubicin		Leukemia	[32]
	Doxorubicin		Leukemia, breast cancer	[32]
	Epirubicin		Breast cancer	[33]
	Idarubicin		Acute leukemia	[34]
	Mitoxantrone		Breast and prostate cancers, lymphomas and leukemias	[35]
Antitumor antibiotic	Bleomycin		Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, renal, cervical, laryngeal, testicular, lung and others	[36]
	Dactinomicyn		Different solid cancer	[37]
	Mitomycin		Adenocarcinoma of the stomach	[38]
	Plicamycin		Testicular and germ cancers	[39]
Epipodophyllotoxins	Etoposide		Small-cell lung cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, breast and ovarian carcinomas, testicular cancer	[40]
	Teniposide		Small-cell lung cancer, leukemia	[41]
Taxanes	Cabazitaxel		Prostatic cancer	[42]
	Docetaxel		Metastatic prostate cancer	[43]
	Paclitaxel		Ovarian, breast and lung cancer, as well as Kaposi’s sarcoma	[44]
Vinca alkaloids	Vinblastine	Vinblastine-N-Oxide	Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma	[45]
	Vincristine		Precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia	[46]
	Vinorelbine		Non-small-cell lung cancer and metastatic breast cancer	[47]
Campotothecins	SN-38 (7-ethyl-10-hydroxy-camptothecin)	Irinotecan	Solid tumors, including colorectal, pancreatic and lung cancer	[48]
	Topotecan		Cervical cancer	[49]
Platinum analogs	Carboplatin		Ovarian cancer cells	[50]
	Cisplatin		Solid cancers, such as testicular, ovarian, head and neck, bladder, lung, cervical cancer, melanoma, lymphomas and several others	[50,51]
	Oxaliplatin		Colorectal cancer	[52]
Monoclonal antibody	Bevacizumab		Metastatic colorectal cancer, metastatic breast cancer, non-small-cell lung cancer, glioblastoma, renal-cell carcinoma, ovarian cancer and cervical cancer	[53]
	Cetuximab		Non-small-cell lung cancer	[54]
	Rituximab		Lymphoid malignancies, including aggressive forms of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, B-cell malignancies, follicular lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma	[55]
	Trastuzumab		Breast and metastatic gastric cancer	[56]
Growth inhibitor	Axitinib		Renal-cell carcinoma	[57]
	Bortezomib		Multiple myeloma	[58]
	Bosutinib		Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myelogenous leukemia	[6]
	Crizotinib		Non-small-cell lung cancer	[59]
	Dabrafenib		BRAF-mutated melanoma	[60]
	Dasatinib		Chronic myeloid leukemia and Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia	[61]
	Imatinib		Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)	[62]
	Lapatinib		Breast and gastrointestinal cancer	[63]
	Nilotinib		Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)	[64]
	Pazopanib		Metastatic renal-cell carcinoma	[65]
	Sorafenib		Hepatocellular carcinoma	[66]
	Sunitinib		Renal-cell carcinoma	[57]
	Trametinib		BRAF-mutated melanoma	[60]
	Vandetanib		Metastatic medullary tyroid cancer	[67]
	Vemurafenib		BRAF-mutated melanoma	[68]