The incidence and mortality of cancer continue to grow since the current medical treatments often fail to produce a complete and durable tumor response and ultimately give rise to therapy resistance and tumor relapse. Heterocycles with potential therapeutic values are of great pharmacological importance, and among them, indazole moiety is a privileged structure in medicinal chemistry. Indazole compounds possess potential anticancer activity, and indazole-based agents such as, axitinib, lonidamine and pazopanib have already been employed for cancer therapy, demonstrating indazole compounds as useful templates for the development of novel anticancer agents. The aim of this review is to present the main aspects of exploring anticancer properties, such as the structural modifications, the structure-activity relationship and mechanisms of action, making an effort to highlight the importance and therapeutic potential of the indazole compounds in the present anticancer agents.
Keywords: Indazole, Anticancer, Drug-resistant, Structure-activity relationship, Mechanisms of action, Lonidamine.