[The search for anticancer agents at IDR].

This paper deals with results of the search for anticancer agents achieved at IDR during the period of 1953-1983. This research activity concentrated on the following four topics: 1) biological alkylating agents, 2) nucleoside type antimetabolites, 3) anthracyclin antibiotics and 4) analogs of tamoxifen. Among those the first one was the most successful, resulting in five new cytostatics, which were marketed under the tradename Degranol [1,6-bis-(2-chloroethylamino)-1,6-dideoxy-D-mannitol], Mannogranol [1,6-dibromo-1,6-dideoxy-D-mannitol], Myelobromol [1,6-dibromo-1,6-dideoxy-galactitol], Zytostop [1,2,5,6-tetra-O-methanesulfonyl-D-mannitol] and Lycurim [1,4-bis-(mesyloxiethylamino)-1,4-dideoxy-eryhtritol].