Work is continuing in a number of institutions to develop a second generation of anti-tumour drugs, based upon complex compounds of platinum, that will offer greater selectivity together with a reduction in toxic side-effects. During the course of a three-day meeting held in Bologna in Italy in September, the Ninth International Symposium on the Biological Characterisation of Human Tumours, a paper was presented by Dr. M. J. Cleare of the Johnson Matthey Group Research Centre. A summary of his talk is given here.