Strategies for improving platinum-based anticancer drugs usually involve changes in the neutral spectator ligands, changes in the nature of the anions (halides vs various carboxylates), or changes in the oxidation state of the metal (Pt(II) vs Pt(IV)). Nanotechnology has been explored to deliver platinum more efficiently in the case of lipoplatin, which is introduced into the tumor sites thereby reducing the chance of toxicity.
Cisplatin was the first to be developed. Cisplatin is particularly effective against testicular cancer; the cure rate was improved from 10% to 85%. Similarly, the addition of cisplatin to adjuvant chemotherapy led to a marked increase in disease-free survival rates for patients with medulloblastoma - again, up to around 85%.  This application of cisplatin was developed by pediatric oncologist Roger Packer in the early 1980s.