Satraplatin is a platinum

Platinum

Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...

 compound that is currently under investigation as one treatment of patients with advanced prostate cancer

Prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...

 who have failed previous chemotherapy

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....

. It has not yet received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Food and Drug Administration

The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...

. First mentioned in the medical literature in 1993, satraplatin is the first orally active platinum-based chemotherapeutic drug; other available platinum analogues—cisplatin

Cisplatin

Cisplatin, cisplatinum, or cis-diamminedichloroplatinum is a chemotherapy drug. It is used to treat various types of cancers, including sarcomas, some carcinomas , lymphomas, and germ cell tumors...

, carboplatin

Carboplatin

Carboplatin, or cis-Diammineplatinum is a chemotherapy drug used against some forms of cancer...

, and oxaliplatin

Oxaliplatin

Oxaliplatin is a coordination complex that is used in cancer chemotherapy. These platinum-based drugs are usually classified as alkylating agents, although they are not actually alkylating groups ....

—must be given intravenously

Intravenous therapy

Intravenous therapy or IV therapy is the infusion of liquid substances directly into a vein. The word intravenous simply means "within a vein". Therapies administered intravenously are often called specialty pharmaceuticals...

.

It is made available in the United States jointly by Spectrum Pharmaceuticals

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals is an American biopharmaceutical company. The company is located in Irvine, California.-Approved drugs:In the US, Spectrum markets Fusilev and Zevalin.Fusilev for injection is a drug that was approved by the U.S...

 and GPC Biotech under the name SPERA (Satraplatin Expanded Rapid Access).

The drug has also been used in the treatment of lung and ovarian cancers. The proposed mode of action is that the compound binds to the DNA

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...

 of cancer cells rendering them incapable of dividing

Mitosis

Mitosis is the process by which a eukaryotic cell separates the chromosomes in its cell nucleus into two identical sets, in two separate nuclei. It is generally followed immediately by cytokinesis, which divides the nuclei, cytoplasm, organelles and cell membrane into two cells containing roughly...

.