Cultured cell model anticancer drug

Analysis of the Role of NTs in Sensitivity to Nucleoside Anticancer Drugs in Cultured Cell Models... 

Although animal models can provide important information regarding the bioavailability and pharmacology of potential anticancer drugs in mammals, they are not always accurate predictors of activity against human tumor cells. In one report [27], the activity of a series of isomeric [l,2-bis(di-fluorophenyl)ethylenediamine]dichloroplatinum(II) compounds was evaluated in MXT murine mammary carcinomas in vivo the same compounds were also tested against several human cell lines in culture. The in vivo screen revealed a 2,6-difluoro-substituted compound to be the most active, whereas the 2,4-difluoro-substituted compound was most active against the human breast-cancer cell lines. It was concluded that the mouse mammary carcinoma is not an appropriate model for human breast cancers. Extreme caution must be employed when animal tumor results are used to predict activity in human tumors. 

Doillon CJ, Gagnon E, Paradis R, Koutsilieris M (1994). Three-dimensional culture system as a model for studying cancer cell invasion capacity and anticancer drug sensitivity. Anticancer Res 24 2169-2177. 

For the reason that the vast majority of anticancer drugs work by indiscriminant targeting the processes responsible for cell division, rather than specific proteins or pathways responsible for other cancer traits (e.g., resistance to apoptosis, immortality, metastatic potential, growth factor independence), the recent trend in preclinical in vitro drug testing has been to move beyond traditional 2D culture models and rely more heavily upon emerging 3D ones or to animal models, though animal models have their own limitations noted helow. 

New drugs suspected of having anticancer activity are tested in standard animal models in which tumors are transplanted from one generation of animals, generally mice, to the next and are thus perpetuated in vivo. In vitro tumor cell culture systems are commonly used to determine if a new drug has cytotoxic or growth-inhibiting activity. However, the in vivo test is considered to be a better predictor of activity in humans. 

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