Recently reported cell migration inhibitors: Opportunities and challenges for antimetastatic agents

•Condenses key information of recently reported migration inhibitors.•Extremely useful for understanding the current research in migration inhibitors.•Provides enlightening, target-based evaluation of the potential of the inhibitors.•Provides straightforward insight into the antimigratory mechanisms of action of the inhibitors. Antimetastatic agents are highly desirable for cancer treatment because of the severe medical challenges and high mortality resulting from tumor metastasis. Having demonstrated antimetastatic effects in numerous in vitro and in vivo studies, migration inhibitors present significant opportunities for developing a new class of anticancer drugs. To provide a useful overview on the latest research in migration inhibitors, this article first discusses their therapeutic significance, targetable proteins, and developmental avenues. Subsequently it reviews over 20 representative migration inhibitors reported in recent journals in terms of their inhibitory mechanism, potency, and potential clinical utility. The relevance of the target proteins to cellular migratory function is focused on as it is crucial for assessing the overall efficacy of the inhibitors.