Scientists Are Searching the Seas for Cancer Drugs

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Some cling to rocky shores and piers. Others spend their lives glued to coral reefs or buried within the sands of the ocean floors.

But, wherever they live, there is increasing evidence that many ocean organisms—including sponges, sea squirts, and microbes—produce potent chemicals that may be lethal to cancer cells. With seven marine-derived drugs now in clinical trials and others on the way, ocean products may be outstripping land-based plants as promising sources of potential cancer drugs.

“We've looked in many plants. The last commercialized anticancer drug that came directly from a plant was Taxol in 1972,” said David Newman, D.Phil., acting director of the National Cancer Institute's Natural Products Branch Developmental Therapeutics Program. “What we have found is that if you look in plants, you find new variations on old themes. What we see in ocean organisms is novel chemistry that hasn't been seen before.”

That chemistry has roots in the ocean environment, Newman said.