Recent Trends in Screening and Evaluation Methods of Anticancer Drugs

Cancer is one of the major life threatening diseases worldwide. The available
anticancer drugs have distinct mechanisms of action which may vary in their effects on
different types of normal and cancer cells. Screening methods are routinely and extensively
used to reduce cost and time of drug discovery. The traditional anticancer drug screening
methods, including animal experiments and cell-based screening assays. Screening methods
for the detection of anticancer activity are of importance in order to find solid tumorspecific
agents. The screening and evaluation procedures for the development of anticancer
agents indicated that the entire process is a rather difficult task. Presently, active
compounds are selected by prescreening and screening against transplanted mouse tumors
and human tumor xenografts as well as by the in vitro systems. The US National Cancer
Institute (NCI) 60 human tumour cell line anticancer drug screen (NCI60) was developed in
the late 1980s as an in vitro drug-discovery tool intended to supplant the use of
transplantable animal tumours in anticancer drug screening. This screening model give
information about the mechanisms of growth inhibition and tumour-cell kill. Recently, its
role has changed to that of a service screen supporting the cancer research community.
Target-based and cell-based screenings for new anticancer drugs in the molecular targeting
period are methods of identifying more selective anticancer drugs. Here I review the
development, use and productivity of the screen, highlighting several outcomes that have
contributed to advances in cancer chemotherapy. Finally, we discuss primary and secondary
in vivo evaluation in experimental chemotherapy.