As the
drug discovery and developmental arm of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Developmental
Therapeutics Program (DTP) plans, conducts and facilitates development of therapeutic agents for
cancer and
AIDS. DTP's goal is to turn 'molecules into medicine for the public health'. Areas of support by DTP are discovery, development and pathways to development for the intramural and the extramural community. The Developmental
Therapeutics Program (DTP) operates a repository of synthetic and pure natural products, which are evaluated as potential
anticancer agents. The repository derives from a historical database of greater than 600 000 compounds, which have been supplied to DTP from a variety of sources worldwide. The in vitro anti-
cancer drug cell line screen established at DTP is unique in several respects. It has changed the NCI emphasis from a compound-oriented
drug discovery effort to a disease-panel oriented exercise, emphasized human
tumor cells derived from solid
tumors, developed a high volume screening method that can adapt to processing of numerous chemical agents or natural source-derived extracts, that has minimized the use of animals, and saved on the amount of material required for the initial screening. The hollow fiber assay created at the DTP has demonstrated the ability to provide quantitative initial indices of in vivo
drug efficacy, with minimum expenditures of time and materials and is currently being utilized as the initial in vivo experience for agents found to have reproducible activity in the in vitroanticancer
drug screen. Drugs showing activity with unique mechanisms of actions are being further developed for treatment of
hematopoietic neoplasms, prominent examples being
flavopiridol,
UCN-01 and
depsipeptide among others.