The NCI-60 cancer cell line panel is a group of 60 human

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

cell lines used by the

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

(NCI) for the screening of compounds to detect potential anticancer activity.

Purpose

The screening procedure is called the NCI-60 Human Tumor Cell Lines Screen, and it is one of the Discovery & Development Services of NCI's Developmental Therapeutics Program (DTP). The screening rates for each cell line the cytostatic and

cytotoxic Cytotoxicity is the quality of being toxic to cells. Examples of toxic agents are toxic metals, toxic chemicals, microbe neurotoxins, radiation particles and even specific neurotransmitters when the system is out of balance. Also some types of dr ...

impact of tested substances. Due to the diversity of the cell lines, it is possible to compare tested compounds by their effect patterns, high correlation potentially corresponding to similar effect mechanisms. An automated comparison against a database of more than 88,000 pure compounds and more than 34,000 crude extracts () is provided by the

COMPARE Comparison or comparing is the act of evaluating two or more things by determining the relevant, comparable characteristics of each thing, and then determining which characteristics of each are similar to the other, which are different, and t ...

tool, which shows a list of substances ranked by the

Pearson correlation coefficient In statistics, the Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) is a correlation coefficient that measures linear correlation between two sets of data. It is the ratio between the covariance of two variables and the product of their standard deviatio ...

s for a given test substance. The same panel is used in the Molecular Target Program for the characterization of molecular targets. Measurements include protein levels, RNA measurements, mutation status and

enzyme activity Enzyme assays are laboratory methods for measuring enzyme, enzymatic activity. They are vital for the study of enzyme kinetics and enzyme inhibitor, enzyme inhibition. Enzyme units The quantity or concentration of an enzyme can be expressed in Mo ...

levels.

Cell Lines

The panel holds cell lines representing

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

melanoma Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer; it develops from the melanin-producing cells known as melanocytes. It typically occurs in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye (uveal melanoma). In very rare case ...

non-small-cell lung carcinoma Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), or non-small-cell lung carcinoma, is any type of epithelial lung cancer other than small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). NSCLC accounts for about 85% of all lung cancers. As a class, NSCLCs are relatively insensitiv ...

, and cancers of the

brain The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...

ovary The ovary () is a gonad in the female reproductive system that produces ova; when released, an ovum travels through the fallopian tube/ oviduct into the uterus. There is an ovary on the left and the right side of the body. The ovaries are end ...

breast The breasts are two prominences located on the upper ventral region of the torso among humans and other primates. Both sexes develop breasts from the same embryology, embryological tissues. The relative size and development of the breasts is ...

, colon,

kidney In humans, the kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped blood-filtering organ (anatomy), organs that are a multilobar, multipapillary form of mammalian kidneys, usually without signs of external lobulation. They are located on the left and rig ...

, and

prostate The prostate is an male accessory gland, accessory gland of the male reproductive system and a muscle-driven mechanical switch between urination and ejaculation. It is found in all male mammals. It differs between species anatomically, chemica ...

. 13 additional cell lines are evaluated for use in the screening program, among them two lines deriving from so far not represented small-cell lung carcinoma. All cell lines but one () are available to other laboratories, including the additional cell lines.

Misidentification and Misclassification

Starting around the turn of the millennium, several cell lines were found to be misidentified or misclassified at the time of investigation or earlier: MDA-MB-435, originally classified as breast cancer cell line, was identified as being a melanoma cell line. When investigated further, current MDA-MB-435 appeared to be derived from the same individual as cell line M14. An examination of clones made clear that the mixup with M14 happened very early in the history of MDA-MB-435, before establishment in the Developmental Therapeutics Program. NCI/ADR-RES, originally classified as breast cancer cell line, was identified as being an ovarian tumor cell line. NCI/ADR-RES appears to have been derived at some point in time from cell line OVCAR-8. Originally the cell line was named MCF-7/ADR-RES; it was renamed together with the change in classification. Two brain cancer cell lines, SNB-19 and

U251 The NCI-60 cancer cell line panel is a group of 60 human cancer cell lines used by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for the screening of compounds to detect potential anticancer activity. Purpose The screening procedure is called the NCI-6 ...

, were discovered to come from the same person. This makes a mixup likely. A 61st cell line,

MDA-N The NCI-60 cancer cell line panel is a group of 60 human cancer cell lines used by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for the screening of compounds to detect potential anticancer activity. Purpose The screening procedure is called the NCI-6 ...

, has been confirmed to being derived from the misclassified MDA-MB-435 cell line. So it is also misclassified, really being a melanoma cell line, but the official website still lists it as breast cancer cell line. This cell line is not available . The International Cell Line Authentication Committee maintains a list of contaminated cell lines. It includes the cell lines reported above, although usually with reporting dates and articles considerably later than the first dates and articles rising specific concern regarding the respective cell line.

Continued Use of Wrong Classification

Hundreds of research studies still use MDA-MB-435 as model of breast cancer, even after it was officially declared to be a melanoma cell line in 2007, and even in highest-rated international peer-reviewed journals. Similar is true for other misidentified cell lines.

List of NCI-60 Cell Lines

List of Additional Cell Lines

References

{{reflist * Ovarian cancer