[Chemical evaluation by cancer cell line panel and its role in molecular target-based anticancer drug screening]

Mechanism-based or target-based evaluation of chemicals is important in the discovery and development of anticancer drugs. A new scale for the mechanism-oriented evaluation is acquired by creating a database of drugs that includes their activities concerning growth inhibition against a set of cancer cell lines and by employing a specific data-mining method (Paull KD, et al: J Natl Cancer Inst 81: 1088-1092, 1989). According to this principle, we have established a new system for drug evaluation using a panel of 39 human cancer cell lines, JFCR-39 Cell Line Panel. The JFCR-39 Cell Line Panel is a system combining a wet system (drug-sensitivity test) and a dry system (data base and its mining), and can predict the mechanism of action of chemicals. Therefore, it is useful in anticancer drug discovery. The JFCR-39 Cell Line Panel now plays an important role as a core drug evaluation system in the molecular target-based drug screening conducted by Screening Committee of New Anticancer Agents supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Area "Cancer" from The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. I outlined the JFCR-39 Cell Line Panel in this review.