Large Scale Anticancer Drug Screening at Sterling Drug Inc.

Abstract

Historically, large scale anticancer drug discovery screening programs have identified clinically useful antitumor agents as evident from the high success rate in the chemotherapeutic treatment of selected forms of cancer (primarily hematologic neoplasms). The relatively poor response rates for the treatment of solid tumors most likely reflects the screening systems from which most clinically used agents were discovered, namely leukemia based screens. New assay systems, such as those developed by Dr. Thomas Corbett and colleagues (1) are based on discovering those agents with solid tumor activity and possibly selectivity. Because leukemia based screens often select various structural classes with identical chemotypes, it is our opinion that screening systems geared to select those agents demonstrating selective toxicity versus solid tumors may identify new chemotypes.