1. Introduction Breast cancer seems to be the most common cancer in women all over the world in the last decade [1]. Being so agressive for both incidence and mortality, research concerning breast cancer therapy has been widely developed in the last decade [1,2]. The research was focused mainly on the common types of treatment for different forms of cancer, such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but has also involved less common therapies, such as thermotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy [3]. The treatment modalities were able to partially alleviate the burden of this terible disease, but much more needs to be done in complementary fields, including materials as therapeutic agents, new systems for drug delievery, etc. [4,5] and this fact enhances research in the field. The therapeutic agents can be divided into various categories: alkylating agents, antibiotics which attack nucleic acids, platinum derivative agents as cisplatin, carboplatin or oxiplatin, mitotic inhibitors, antimetabolites, camptothecin type agents, and biological response modifiers. In this idea targeting specific carriers [6] to achieve higher therapeutic efficacy is gaining more importance in the pharmaceutical field and specifically, the nanohybrid compounds with potential sinergetic effects is posed to edge over chemotherapy [7]. An important part of efficacy agents such as the alkylating agents, the tumor targeting antibiotics, and the platinum compounds, is that they act by generating cellular damage by initiating free radical formation, the altered redox status and the presence of reactive oxygen Central European Journal of Chemistry Synthesis, characterization and controlled toxicity of a novel hybrid material based on cisplatin and docetaxel * E-mail: adin@bio.unibuc.ro Received 26 September 2013; Accepted 28 December 2013 Abstract: © Versita Sp. z o.o. Keywords: Carbon nanotubes • TGA • Functionalization • Drug • Cell viability 1 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Bucharest, Bucharest 050095, Romania 2 Department of General Chemistry, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Bucharest 011061, Romania 3 Department of Polymer Science and Technology, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Bucharest 010072, Romania Mariana Prodana 2 , Adriana Voiculet 2 , Sorina Garea 3 , Mihaela Radu 1 , Horia Iovu 3 , Ioana Demetrescu 2 , Anca Dinischiotu 1* Research Article This paper is focused on the synthesis and characterization of a novel hybrid material based on cisplatin and docetaxel-loaded functionalized simultanously carbon nanotubes able to be used in cancer therapy as drug delivery system with controlled toxicity. This material was physico-chemically investigated by determining the structure, as evidenced by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, transmission electronmicroscopy (TEM) and its stability was studied with the aid of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The amount of platinum ions released into the solution of simulated body fluid (SBF) was highlighted by coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Toxicology experiments were performed with MDA-MB 231 breast cancer epithelial cells. The performance of the new drug delivery hybrid material was compared with functionalised carbon nanotubes with therapeutic agents functionalized with a single therapeutic agent. 1008 Cent. Eur. J. Chem. • 12(10) • 2014 • 1008-1015 DOI: 10.2478/s11532-014-0536-0