The palladium complexes [(dppe)Pd(L)(2)PdCl2], [(dppe)Pd(L)(2)PtCl2], [(dppp)Pd(L)(2)PdCl2], [(dppm) Pd(L)(2)NiCl2], and [(dppm)Pd(L)(2)SnCl4] 15-19 were prepared. The antiproliferative activity of the newly synthesized complexes as well as their previously prepared analogues 3-14 and 20-26 were screened against a large panel of human cancer cell lines derived from haematological CD4(+) human T-cells containing an integrated HTLV-1 genome (MT-4). The complex 12a, b exhibited remarkable antiproliferative activity against MT-4, CD4(+) human acute T-lymphoblastic leukemia (CCRF-CEM), human splenic B-lymphoblastoid cells (WIL-2NS), human acute B-lymphoblastic leukemia (CCRF-SB), skin melanoma (SK-MEL-28), and prostate carcinoma (DU145) cell lines (CC50 = 0.5 mu M, 0.4 +/- 0.05 mu M, 0.6 +/- 0.05 mu M, 0.4 +/- 0.1 mu M, and 0.8 +/- 0.2 mu M, respectively), mean-while, 9a, b, 14a, b, and 23 showed significant activity against the CCRF-SB cell lines (CC50 = 0.6 +/- 0.06 mu M, 0.7 +/- 0.05 mu M, 0.6 +/- 0.05 mu M, and 0.8 +/- 0.15 mu M, respectively). Further, 19 exhibited activity against the CCRF-CEM cell line (CC50 = 0.4 +/- 0.05 mu M).