Cancer is one of the diseases with high morbidity and mortality on a global scale. Chemotherapy remains the primary treatment option for most cancer patients

including patients with progressive

metastatic

and recurrent diseases. To date

hundreds of chemotherapy drugs are used to treat various cancers

however

the anti-cancer efficacy and outcomes are largely hampered by chemotherapy-associated toxicity and acquired therapeutic resistance. The natural product (NP) oridonin has been extensively studied for its anti-cancer efficacy. More recently

oridonin has been shown to overcome drug resistance through multiple mechanisms

with yet-to-be-defined

bona fide

targets. Hundreds of oridonin derivative analogs (oridonalogs) have been synthesized and screened for improved potency

bioavailability

and other drug properties. Particularly

many of these oridonalogs have been tested against oridonin for tumor growth inhibition

potential for overcoming therapeutic resistance

and immunity modulation. This concise review seeks to summarize the advances in this field in light of identifying clinical-trial level drug candidates with the promise for treating progressive cancers and reversing chemoresistance.