and co-workersin 1966, con-tinues to be one of the most important lead compounds among
the anticancer natural products. 1 A number of promising analogs have been prepared that
show improved solubility, low overall toxicity, and impressive in vivo activity against certain
solid tu-mors. 2 Some of the more active derivatives include 9-amino-camptothecin2®(2),
10, 11-(methylenedioxyjcamptothecin2®· 3 (3), and (20S)-9-[(dimethylamino) methyl]-10 …