NCI-60


The NCI-60 cancer cell line panel is a group of 60 human cancer cell lines used by the National Cancer Institute 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.
The screening rates for each cell line the cytostatic and cytotoxic 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 tool, which shows a list of substances ranked by the Pearson correlation coefficients 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 levels.

Cell Lines

The panel holds cell lines representing leukemia, melanoma, non-small-cell lung carcinoma, and cancers of the brain, ovary, breast, colon, kidney, and prostate.
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, were discovered to come from the same person.
This makes a mixup likely.
A 61st cell line, MDA-N, 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 as of 2018 the official website still lists it as breast cancer cell line.
This cell line is not available as of 2018.
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

Cell lineTumor classification misidentifiedOriginal classificationUnavailableDoubling Time Inoculation DensityCellosaurus identifier and link
CCRF-CEMLeukemia26.740000
HL-60Leukemia28.640000
K-562Leukemia19.65000
MOLT-4Leukemia27.930000
RPMI-8226Leukemia33.520000
SRLeukemia28.720000
A549/ATCCNon-Small Cell Lung22.97500
EKVXNon-Small Cell Lung43.620000
HOP-62Non-Small Cell Lung3910000
HOP-92Non-Small Cell Lung79.520000
NCI-H226Non-Small Cell Lung6120000
NCI-H23Non-Small Cell Lung33.420000
NCI-H322MNon-Small Cell Lung35.320000
NCI-H460Non-Small Cell Lung17.87500
NCI-H522Non-Small Cell Lung38.220000
COLO 205Colon23.815000
HCC-2998Colon31.515000
HCT116Colon17.45000
HCT-15Colon20.610000
HT-29Colon19.55000
KM12Colon23.715000
SW-620Colon20.410000
SF-268CNS33.115000
SF-295CNS29.510000
SF-539CNS35.415000
SNB-19CNSyesCNS34.615000
SNB-75CNS62.820000
U251CNSyesCNS23.87500
LOX IMVIMelanoma20.57500
MALME-3MMelanoma46.220000
M14Melanoma26.315000
MDA-MB-435MelanomayesBreast25.815000
SK-MEL-2Melanoma45.520000
SK-MEL-28Melanoma35.110000
SK-MEL-5Melanoma25.210000
UACC-257Melanoma38.520000
UACC-62Melanoma31.310000
IGR-OV1Ovarian3110000
OVCAR-3Ovarian34.710000
OVCAR-4Ovarian41.415000
OVCAR-5Ovarian48.820000
OVCAR-8Ovarian26.110000
NCI/ADR-RES OvarianyesBreast3415000
SK-OV-3Ovarian48.720000
786-ORenal22.410000
A498Renal66.825000
ACHNRenal27.510000
CAKI-1Renal3910000
RXF 393Renal62.915000
SN12CRenal29.515000
TK-10Renal51.315000
UO-31Renal41.715000
PC-3Prostate27.17500
DU-145Prostate32.310000
MCF7Breast25.410000
MDA-MB-231/ATCCBreast41.920000
MDA-MB-468Breast622000
HS 578TBreast53.820000
MDA-NMelanomayesBreastunavailable22.515000
BT-549Breast53.920000
T-47DBreast45.520000

List of Additional Cell Lines

Cell lineTumor classificationSpeciesInoculation DensityCellosaurus identifier and link
LXFL 529Non-Small Cell Lunghuman10000
DMS 114Small Cell Lunghuman20000
SHP-77Small Cell Lunghuman40000
DLD-1Colonhuman50000
KM20L2Colonhuman10000
SNB-78CNShuman20000
XF 498CNShuman20000
RPMI-7951Melanomahuman20000
M19-MELMelanomahuman10000
RXF-631Renalhuman10000
SN12K1Renalhuman10000
P388Leukemiamouse50000
P388/ADRLeukemiamouse50000