A series of self-assembled dinuclear metallacycles featuring fac-Re(CO)(3) core as metal corners have been prepared in a facile one-pot reaction via a coordination driven self-assembly strategy. Self-assembly of Re (CO)(5)Br and amide based flexible linkers (L1-L4) in a 1:1 ratio resulted in the formation of rhenium based dinuclear metallacycles with the general formula [Re(CO)(3)(mu-N-L-N)Br](2) (1-4). The metallacycles 1-4 were characterized based on elemental analysis, IR, UV-Vis, NMR and ESI-mass spectroscopic techniques. The molecular structures of compounds I and 2 were obtained using single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods. The anticancer activities of metallacycles 1-4 on five different cancer cells revealed that the metallacycles selectively inhibit certain cancer cells. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.