Occurrence, Ecotoxicology, and Treatment of Anticancer Agents as Water Contaminants

environment based on the French data, where only 13.8% of the total amount of anticancer agents in urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) comes from hospital effluents; the rest is directly from the municipal wastewater system due to outpatient consumption [5].For this review, we searched the relevant keywords in the English literature indexed in ISI Web of Knowledge, PubMed, and hazardous substances data bank from U.S. national library of medicine [8].We also browsed through US EPA bibliographic database of publications relevant to PPCPs [9].In the following sections, we focus on the properties of common anticancer agents, their occurrence in the aquatic environment, ecotoxicology, and reported strategies for their inactivation and removal.Analytical methods developed for the measurement of anticancer agents as pollutants in various waterbodies are thoroughly reviewed elsewhere [10], thus not included in this review. Classical Alkylating Agents (Nitrogen Mustards): Cyclophosphamide, Ifosfamide, Chlorambucil, MelphalanCyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, chlorambucil, melphalan are cytotoxic alkylating agents, structurally similar to mustard gas.(Table 1) Chemically, they all have the bis (2-chloroethyl) amine group, which is able to form aziridinium through intramolecular displacement of chloride by the nitrogen.The aziridinium group nonspecifically alkylates the N 7 of the guanine bases to form interstrand crosslinks in DNA [11].This type of DNA damage blocks DNA replication and transcription, thus is highly cytotoxic.Clinically, this group of alkylating agents is widely used as the chemotherapy backbones for lymphoma, leukemia, and several solid tumors.Alkylating agents in this class are polar compounds with small octanol-water partition coefficient (K ow ) and large solubility in water Abstract Anticancer agents as water contaminants belong to a general class of pharmaceuticals and personal care products as pollutants (PPCPs) that are widely present in the environment.They are less studied compared to other PPCPs in the past two decades.However, the cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and endocrine disruption of these agents mar more concerning adverse effects on the environment and human health.Here, we review different classes of anticancer agents as emerging water contaminants, their occurrence in various waterbodies, the ecotoxicology, and the strategies for their treatment.