In chapter one the biology of cancer is introduced along with a brief history of drug treatment and the status quo of cancer therapeutics. This includes a general overview of cancer prevalence, carcinogenesis, and biochemistry. The main targets for cancer therapeutics are introduced along with in-depth look at cancer vasculature, tubulin binding agents and their mechanisms of action. In chapter two the development of the routes to the dibenzo[c,e]oxepine target compounds are described. The optimisation of a key biaryl precursor molecule for these analogues is described. This includes a brief overview of palladium catalysed coupling chemistry and a screen for suitable catalytic systems. In chapter three the development of an intramolecular ring closing process for dibenzo[b,d]oxepine is described. This includes investigation into non-phenolic oxidative coupling and a screen for oxidants. Palladium/phosphine catalysed intramolecular arylation is also discussed. In chapter four the synthesis of the target compounds is described along the development of routes to further analogues. In chapter five the biological testing of compounds is discussed. This features an introduction to biological evaluation methods for anti cancer compounds. The results for all of the MTT and tubulin binding assays (MA) are presented, revealing a fluorinated dibenzo[c,e]oxepine analogue with cytotoxicity within the nanomolar range (MTT K562 - IC50 60 nm, MA - 1.2 µM). Furthermore a link has also been established between the cytotoxic activity profiles of a series of simple biaryl compounds and Combretastatin A-4.