Chemical structure and tumor type specificity of "half-mustard type" phenothiazines

The antiproliferative activity of six "half-mustard type" phenothiazines against a total of 54 tumor cell lines: 4 leukemia, 9 non-small-cell lung, 7 colon-, 5 CNS-, 8 melanoma, 6 ovarian-, 8 renal-, 1 prostate and 6 breast cancer was determined by NCI-Information Intensive-Approach. The C-2 position of phenothiazines were substituted with H, Cl and CF3 groups. The half-mustard and ring system was linked either by a propylene or a butylene bridge. Colon-cancer cell showed the highest sensitivity against "half-mustard type" phenothiazines, followed by leukemia, melanoma, prostate-, CNS-, breast-, lung-, renal and ovarian cancer cells. These data suggest the "cancer-type-specific" antitumor action of "half-mustard type" phenothiazines.