Quantifying Cancer Drug Response Profiles

The growth inhibitory activity of 4518 drugs was quantified in 578 human cancer cell lines using the PRISM molecular barcoding and multiplexed screening method [66 (link)]. The PRISM repurposing dataset is available at the Cancer Dependency Map portal (https://depmap.org/portal/download/, accessed on 1 April 2021). Drug responses of nine commonly used chemotherapeutic regimens in treating NSCLC were included in this study: carboplatin, cisplatin, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine, vinorelbine, etoposide, gefitinib, and erlotinib. For each drug, cell lines were defined as resistant, sensitive, or partial response by using the mean ± 0.5 standard deviation (SD) of the IC₅₀ or EC₅₀ values [67 (link),68 (link)]. Cell lines with an IC₅₀ or EC₅₀ value greater than the mean + 0.5 SD were defined as resistant to the drug. Cell lines with an IC₅₀ or EC₅₀ value less than the mean − 0.5 SD were defined as sensitive to the drug, and those with an IC₅₀ or EC₅₀ value between the mean + 0.5 SD and the mean − 0.5 SD were defined as having a partial response to the drug. This categorization corresponds to the RECIST 1.1 system (i.e., complete response, partial response, and stable disease/disease progression) in evaluating chemotherapeutic response in solid tumors [69 (link)].