Anticancer activities of organogermanium compounds

Abstract Among the diversed applications of germanium in biological, chemical, industrial, medical and pharmaceutical fields, this overview focuses on anticancer actions of organogermanium. Organogermanium compounds (OGCs) with their low toxic profiles are applied in different biological, medical and pharmaceutical fields than the inorganic germanium compounds. For anticancer studies, OGCs in previous studies were synthesized using both liquid and gaseous phases, but recently the use of wet chemical reduction method to synthesize capped water-dispersible (GeNPs) to help promote green chemistry is the encouraged practice.Keywords: Organogermanium compounds, anticancer activities, wet chemical reduction method, nanoparticles of germanium, green chemistry.