Cancer cell viability

Cancer cell viability is a phenotypic measurement that quantifies the proportion of living, metabolically active cancer cells in a population. It serves as a critical endpoint in preclinical drug screening, where compounds are evaluated for their ability to reduce cancer cell survival and proliferation. Multiple methodologies exist to assess viability, including ATP content measurement (CellTiter-Glo), cell confluency imaging, and other metabolic assays[5][6]. The OECD categorizes viability assessment methods into four groups: non-invasive cell structure damage, invasive cell structure damage, cell growth, and cellular metabolism[6]. In drug development, viability profiling is performed across large panels of cancer cell lines to identify which tumor types are most likely to respond to specific therapeutic agents[1]. The reduction in cancer cell viability can result from various mechanisms including inhibition of cell proliferation, induction of apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, DNA damage, or metabolic disruption[7]. High-throughput viability screens, such as the PRISM platform, enable testing of nearly 1000 cancer cell lines against multiple compounds to identify selective therapeutic opportunities[11]. While cancer cell viability itself is not a therapeutic target, its measurement is essential for identifying and validating actual molecular targets such as kinases, receptors, enzymes, and signaling pathways that, when inhibited, lead to decreased cancer cell survival.

Other names

biological assay endpointphenotypic measurementmeasurement or assay readoutcell viability