ABSTRACT
Cancer is one of the most deadly diseases in Western nations compared to infectious diseases of developing nations. There is an urgent need for new anticancer drugs with novel modes of action despite remarkable developments in cancer therapy in the past three decades. The large diversity of the marine environments offers a variety of secondary metabolites. New drugs from the marine environment act as an alternative source to meet the world population demand. In spite of vast diversity, the percentage of secondary metabolites screened for bioactivity is low in the marine environment. This chapter provides an insight into the unexplored area of marine anticancer compounds and anticancer research so far conducted in the area of marine anticancer drugs. In this review chapter, we summarized a class of marine anticancer agents from marine environment, their structure and the methods of isolation.
