Cancer has been one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity globally and is expected to rise about 70 % over the next two decades. 1 It is estimated that over 8.8million people are dying of cancer every year. 2 Cancer cells grow in all the tissues of body and initiate their growth and the spread to other tissues and organs. Lungs, prostrate, liver and stomach are commonly affected regions in men whereas in cases of women, breast, cervix, lungs and stomach are the most affected regions. 3 Treatment of the illness involves surgical procedures for removal of biomass, radiation followed by chemotherapy to prevent further development of cancer. Given the economic problem and mortality associated with cancer, there is an urgent need for more effective therapeutics. Natural products have gained more attention in recent years for the treatment of human ailments considering their biological and ecofriendly properties in targeting infected sites with less toxicity to normal cells. 4 Hence, lot of advancements for cancer and other lethal diseases are directly correlated with discovering drugs from natural sources. Therapeutic products from nature offer promising source for investigation of new antagonistic chemical classes with novel mechanism of action. 5,6 The first marine organism to be studied for its chemical components is the Caribbean sponge, Cryptotethya crypta. Biotechnology emerged as a study with drug discovery for improving health-care during 1980s and researches has been improving with advanced tools for development of pharmaceutical leads. 7 Here is an overview of significance of marine sources for cancer therapy and anti-tumour lead molecules. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF MARINE SOURCES Advantages of Marine sponge and Fungi Marine environment have produced many compounds that have potential activity against cancer. Alkaloids, Flavonoids, polysaccharides etc isolated from marine sources are said to have potential activity against cancer. Cytarabine, a marine natural product was extracted from a sponge. It has been found that marine sponges have compounds made by bacteria, hence these bacterial symbionts are said to be the origin of the drugs. Thicoraline, a compound extracted from a marine microorganism stops RNA production and is cytotoxic against several cancer lines. This also stops cell growth in colon cancer cell lines. Metabolites produced by marine fungi are said to have anticancer effects and are not found in terrestrial fungi. Over half of the marine cyanobacteria can be utilized for isolating bioactive compounds that have efficacy in initiating cancer cell death or intervene in the cell signalling process by activating protein kinase. Seaweeds producing metabolites have exhibited activity against cancer too.

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