Marine sponges are currently one of the richest sources of anticancer active compounds found in the marine ecosystems. More than 5300 different known metabolites are from sponges and their associated microorganisms. To survive in the complicated marine environment, most of the sponge species have evolved chemical means to defend against predation. Such chemical adaptation produces many biologically active secondary metabolites including anticancer agents. This review highlights novel secondary metabolites in sponges which inhibited diverse cancer species in the recent 5 years. These natural products of marine sponges are categorized based on various chemical characteristics.

Marine natural products constitute a huge reservoir of anticancer agents. Consequently during the past decades, several marine anticancer compounds have been isolated, identified, and approved for anticancer treatment or are under trials. In this article the sources, structure, bioactivities, mode of actions, and analogs of some promising marine and derived anticancer compounds have been discussed.