Plicamycin, which was formerly known as mithramycin, is an antibiotic that is used as an anticancer agent in the therapy of testicular and germ cell cancers. Plicamycin causes acute hepatic injury that arises within days of starting therapy, but is usually transient and asymptomatic and rarely leads to jaundice. Plicamycin has not been approved for use as cancer chemotherapy in the United States, but continues to be used on an investigational basis.