Abstract 2769: Qualification of human tumor cell lines for inclusion in the OncoPanel™ cell-based profiling and screening service
Authors: Garner Steven M. , Krings Jillian V. , Hoehn Emily C. , Lofton Erin N. , Rose Lyndsey M. , Cavedine Lee R. , Lahm Brendan M. , Collver Kaleb , Powers Kaitlyne , Herishen Lindsey , King Alastair J. 
Published: April 2023

It is estimated that in the U.S. alone, roughly $200 billion are spent each year on cancer drug discovery. Although this spending is significant, we have still to find truly resilient and enduring treatment plans for a significant percentage of human cancers. Approaches to better understand the broader efficacy of cancer therapeutics and the underlying genomics that govern sensitivity have dramatically changed over the years, as has our ability to screen and characterize the drug response of larger numbers of cancer types. There is thus an already significant need for more robust and effective therapeutic agent screening and profiling in drug discovery. Each cancer patient effectively presents a unique disease, which showcases the challenge in finding the most effective cancer treatments for as many patients as possible.The OncoPanel™ cell-based profiling and screening service from Eurofins Discovery generates drug response data across a panel of over 300 genomically diverse human tumor cell lines that span 19 different tissue types. The data generated from such profiling can also enable the identification of potentially predictive genomic biomarkers of drug response. This can in turn help to determine which genomic features may predispose patients to a more beneficial therapeutic response, or identify potential intrinsic resistance mechanisms to new therapeutic agents. The OncoPanel platform provides an opportunity to evaluate cancer therapeutics using a variety of assay formats and exposure times. Our singleplex assay demonstrates the effect of test agents on tumor cell growth, while our mulitplexed assay uses high content analysis to demonstrate in vitro efficacy in terms of cell proliferation, induction of apoptosis, and effects on the cell cycle. This yields valuable information on how therapeutics inhibit human tumor cell growth. However, the effect of therapeutics on cell viability can also be evaluated using standard CellTiter-Glo® format assays. All of these assays can be used with standard exposure times ranging from three to ten days, to accommodate testing of a wide range of therapeutics and target-based modalities. Here we show how we have qualified more human tumor cell lines from a range of different tissue types for addition to the OncoPanel service in the above-mentioned assay formats. This further expands and diversifies the tumor types represented by this platform, which in turn increases our ability to profile therapeutic agents in a wider panel of individual tumor types. Using this expanded cell line panel, we are now able to demonstrate greater breadth of activity of potential anti-cancer drugs in discovery and development for the treatment of a larger range of patients.

Citation Format: Steven M. Garner, Jillian V. Krings, Emily C. Hoehn, Erin N. Lofton, Lyndsey M. Rose, Lee R. Cavedine, Brendan M. Lahm, Kaleb Collver, Kaitlyne Powers, Lindsey Herishen, Alastair J. King. Qualification of human tumor cell lines for inclusion in the OncoPanel™ cell-based profiling and screening service [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 2769.