Abstract

The hallmark features of cancer emphasize essential biological characteristics associated with malignant transformation. Anti-cancer drug discovery is a strenuous task, requiring a number of pre-clinical and clinical investigations. Preclinical investigations offer a foundation for anti-cancer drug discovery. A number of cell based in-vitro assays have been introduced to investigate each major hallmark feature of cancer. Selection of the most suitable in-vitro assay for pre-clinical investigations mainly depends on the researcher’s objective(s) to be investigated. A wide range of cell based in-vitro anti-proliferative assays/techniques have been developed based on different assay principles and chemistries to evaluate the effects of testing agent (s) on cancer cell proliferation. In this chapter, we have outlined commonly utilized cell based anti-proliferative assays in pre-clinical anti-cancer drug discovery approaches.