Abstract: Malignant tumor is a major health problem facing all mankind, we are in urgent need to develop more effective anti-tumor drugs. Nifurtimox is a kind of nitrofuran compound, which is widely used in the clinical treatment of Chagas' disease. Recently, the anti-tumor effect of nifurtimox has been found and valued. This review described the anti-tumor effect of nifurtimox and its molecular mechanism.That is, nifurtimox increases reactive oxygen species, induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of tumor cells, inhibits AKT phosphorylation. Because of the variety of effective antitumor mechanism of nifurtimox, we expect that the drug can be applied to the treatment of malignant tumor.

Key words: nifurtimox, nalignant tumor, reactive oxygen species (ROS), neuroblastoma