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Platinum agents such as cisplatin and carboplatin work by crosslinking DNA. They are curative in testicular cancer and central to lung, ovarian, bladder, head and neck, and TNBC treatment.
Platinum agents such as cisplatin and carboplatin form intrastrand DNA crosslinks that trigger apoptosis; the damage is repaired by nucleotide excision and homologous recombination, so tumours with defective homologous recombination are particularly sensitive. They are curative in testicular cancer and central to lung, ovarian, bladder, head and neck, and TNBC treatment. Carboplatin added to neoadjuvant TNBC chemotherapy increases pathologic complete response (BrighTNess, and KEYNOTE-522 includes it). HRD-positive tumours are particularly sensitive, which links platinum response to BRCA biology. Nephrotoxicity, ototoxicity, and neurotoxicity are the main costs, and resistance eventually develops in most metastatic settings. The simple version is that platinum drugs glue DNA strands together so cancer cells cannot copy them.
Intrastrand DNA crosslinks trigger apoptosis; repaired by nucleotide excision and homologous recombination.
CAPOX pairs the oral fluoropyrimidine capecitabine with intravenous oxaliplatin as a pill-based alternative to FOLFOX. For low-risk stage III colon cancer three months after surgery works as well as six and halves nerve damage; it is also standard in gastric cancer, with hand-foot syndrome as its price.
Carboplatin is a platinum chemotherapy that crosslinks DNA; it is part of the standard pre-surgery regimen for triple-negative breast cancer.
Cisplatin is the original platinum chemotherapy, discovered by accident in 1965; it cures testicular cancer and makes radiation work better in cervical and head and neck cancer.
FLOT is the four-drug chemotherapy given before and after surgery for stomach cancer in the West; since 2025 immunotherapy is added to it.
FOLFIRINOX is a four-drug chemotherapy combination that, in 2011, became the first treatment to meaningfully extend life in metastatic pancreatic cancer; it is now the standard before and after surgery.
FOLFOX is the workhorse chemotherapy combination for bowel cancer, used after surgery to cure and in advanced disease as the backbone that targeted drugs are added to.
All three of the active bowel cancer chemotherapy drugs given together instead of two. It shrinks more tumours than a doublet and is chosen when shrinking the tumour is what matters, usually with bevacizumab.
Gemcitabine plus cisplatin has been the chemotherapy backbone for bile duct cancer since 2010 and is now given with immunotherapy.
NALIRIFOX is a version of FOLFIRINOX using a liposome-wrapped irinotecan, approved in 2024 as a first-line option for metastatic pancreatic cancer.
The platinum drug that works in bowel cancer where cisplatin does not, the 'OX' in FOLFOX and CAPOX; its cost is nerve damage in hands and feet.
Platinum plus etoposide has been the chemotherapy backbone of small-cell lung cancer for over 40 years, and is now given with immunotherapy.
An old antidote proven in two paediatric trials to halve permanent hearing loss from cisplatin, and approved in 2022 as the first drug to prevent a chemotherapy side effect in children.
Platinum and immunotherapy are now consensus for early triple-negative disease; the open votes have moved to who can safely receive less.
Patients with limited-stage small-cell lung cancer who complete chemoradiotherapy without progression should now be offered up to two years of durvalumab consolidation, which extends life by almost two years on average. This is the first survival improvement for limited-stage disease since twice-daily radiotherapy and prophylactic cranial irradiation, and small-cell lung cancer is no longer a disease where immunotherapy gives only marginal gains.
The survival gain turns the earlier progression-free survival result into a clear reason to offer pembrolizumab with and after chemoradiotherapy to women with node-positive or stage III-IVA cervical cancer. Because cervical cancer is concentrated in low- and middle-income countries, the benefit reaches most women only if pricing and access follow.
Women with locally advanced cervical cancer that is node-positive or stage III-IVA can be offered pembrolizumab alongside and after chemoradiotherapy to lower the chance of relapse. The result matters most in countries where cervical cancer is common but immunotherapy access is poorest, so its global impact depends on pricing and health-system capacity. It does not apply to early-stage disease treated with surgery or to lower-risk locally advanced disease without nodal involvement.
Patients fit enough for cisplatin whose bladder cancer has invaded the muscle wall should now be offered durvalumab with their pre-operative chemotherapy and for about a year after surgery, which improves the chance of cure without compromising the operation. The trial cannot say whether the adjuvant phase is necessary, or how to treat cisplatin-ineligible patients, for whom other trials are ongoing.
For fit patients with newly diagnosed metastatic pancreatic cancer, a FOLFIRINOX-type regimen is now proven to be better than gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel, settling a long-standing debate. The absolute gain is about two months of median survival, and the regimen is more toxic for the gut. Whether liposomal irinotecan adds anything over conventional irinotecan (standard FOLFIRINOX) has never been tested head-to-head.
For stage II-III triple-negative breast cancer, chemotherapy plus pembrolizumab before surgery and pembrolizumab alone afterwards is now the standard approach worldwide, and the survival gain is real, not just a surrogate. It does not apply to stage I disease or to hormone-receptor-positive or HER2-positive cancers. The price is a year of immunotherapy with a meaningful chance of a permanent endocrine side effect such as hypothyroidism or adrenal insufficiency.
The third trial to show carboplatin's benefit persists beyond pathological complete response and the trial that closed the neoadjuvant PARP inhibitor route in unselected triple-negative disease; PARP inhibition survives only in germline BRCA carriers.
Query for this technology: (TITLE:"carboplatin" OR ABSTRACT:"carboplatin" OR TITLE:"cisplatin" OR ABSTRACT:"cisplatin" OR TITLE:"platinum-based chemotherapy" OR ABSTRACT:"platinum-based chemotherapy") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about Platinum agents, not a curated reading list.
Shares Cisplatin (CIS) Administered As Dry Powder for Inhalation (DPI) in Patients with Stage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Efficacy and Safety Evaluation of VS-101 in Combination With Chemoradiotherapy in Patients With Head and Neck Cancer, Aimery de Gramont, A Phase Ib/II Clinical Trial of M701 in the Treatment of Malignant Pleural Effusions Caused by NSCLC.
Shares Induction Chemotherapy Combined With Neoadjuvant Immunotherapy for MSS Colon Cancer, A Phase 2 Study Evaluating the Safety and Efficacy of JS207 With or Without JS015 in Combination With Chemotherapy in Patients With Colorectal Cancer, A Pilot Study Evaluating β-hydroxybutyrate Supplementation Concomitant to Short-Course Radiotherapy Followed by Immunotherapy Combined With CAPEOX Neoadjuvant T, Adding Adjuvant Cisplatin and Gemicitabine Versus Capecitabine in Triple-negative Breast Cancer Patients in Non pCR After Neoadjuvant Standard Chemotherapy.
Shares Cosiporfin Sodium for Injection Photodynamic Therapy, Standard Chemotherapy Plus Moxifloxacin as First-line Treatment for Metastatic Triple-negative Breast Cancer, Adding Adjuvant Cisplatin and Gemicitabine Versus Capecitabine in Triple-negative Breast Cancer Patients in Non pCR After Neoadjuvant Standard Chemotherapy, Hepatic Arterial Infusion of Gemcitabine-oxaliplatin for Second-line Therapy in Non-metastatic Unresectable Intra-hepatic Cholangiocarcinoma.
Shares Hepatic Arterial Infusion of Gemcitabine-oxaliplatin for Second-line Therapy in Non-metastatic Unresectable Intra-hepatic Cholangiocarcinoma, A Single-arm Phase II Clinical Study of the Efficacy and Safety of Camrelizumab Combined With GEMOX for Unresectable GBCs, Tuvonralimab and Iparomlimab Based Regimens for the Neoadjuvant Treatment of Biliary Tract Cancer, Zolbetuximab With mFOLFOX6 or CAPOX in Claudin 18.2 Overexpressed Advanced or Metastatic Biliary Tract Cancers.
Shares Irinotecan Liposomes in Total Neoadjuvant Therapy in Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer, mFOLFOXIRI Plus PD-1 Inhibitor vs mFOLFOX6 as Neoadjuvant Therapy for Locally Advanced Colon Cancer, Induction Chemotherapy Combined With Neoadjuvant Immunotherapy for MSS Colon Cancer, mFOLFOX6 + Bevacizumab + PD-1 Monoclonal Antibody Vs. mFOLFOX6 in Locally Advanced pMMR/MSS CRC.
Shares mFOLFOXIRI Plus Bevacizumab for Organ Preservation in Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer, NeoFOL-R Trial (Perioperative Versus Adjuvnat FOLFIRINOX in Resectable Pancreatic Cancer), Adjuvant mFOLFIRINOX for High-risk Stage III Colon Cancer, mFOLFIRINOX as Adjuvent Chemotherapy in Treating Chinese Pancreatic Cancer Patients.
Shares A Phase II Study of Biomarker-Guided De-escalation Using Anthracycline-Free Neoadjuvant Chemoimmunotherapy in Early-Stage Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) P, A Study of Dostarlimab in Combination With Carboplatin-paclitaxel in Japanese Participants With Primary Advanced or Recurrent Endometrial Cancer, Immune Induction Strategies to Improve Response to Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) Patients, Neoadjuvant mFOLFOX6 Chemotherapy Combined With Anti-PD-1 Therapy in MSS/pMMR Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer (FIRM02 Study).
Shares Irinotecan Liposomes in Total Neoadjuvant Therapy in Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer, mFOLFOX6 + Bevacizumab + PD-1 Monoclonal Antibody Vs. mFOLFOX6 in Locally Advanced pMMR/MSS CRC, mFOLFOXIRI Plus Bevacizumab for Organ Preservation in Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer, Modified Sandwich Therapeutic Regimen for Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer.