IP International Journal of Comprehensive and Advanced Pharmacology 2023;8(1):27–31 Content available at: https://www.ipinnovative.com/open-access-journals IP International Journal of Comprehensive and Advanced Pharmacology Journal homepage: https://www.ijcap.in/ Review Article A comprehensive review on preliminary screening models for the evaluation of anti-cancer agents Bhargav K Kamani 1 , Keval Y. Raval 1, * 1 Dept. of Pharmacology, School of Pharamcy, RK University, Tramba, Gujarat, India ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 23-10-2022 Accepted 25-12-2022 Available online 27-03-2023 Keywords: Cancer Invivo invitro Anticancer drug Screening methods ABSTRACT Cancer refers to a category of illnesses characterised by uncontrolled growth of new cells. The screening of an anticancer drug is a time-consuming procedure that requires several in-vitro, in-vivo, and clinical investigations. Toxic dosages of screening pharmaceutical drugs in-vivo at varying concentrations need to be envisioned in order to prevent chemical poisoning in animals throughout an experiment. Cancer management has been the subject of several in-vitro and in-vivo investigations. To determine the test compound’s anti-cancer efficacy, this research compiled a review of in vivo and in vitro assays. Here, the study emphasizes on the numerous preclinical approaches and processes used in anticancer research. This is an Open Access (OA) journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. For reprints contact: reprint@ipinnovative.com 1. Introduction In the past two decades, biological factors have taken the role of empiric chemical factors in the discovery and development of novel anti-cancer drugs. These factors are mostly based on compounds that operate on molecular targets. This is the outcome of increased biological understanding of the molecular pathways that have been discovered to be dysregulated and/or over-activated in various tumors, which has resulted in the identification of molecular targets such as growth factor receptor and intracellular signaling molecules against which drugs have been developed. 1 This increased biological knowledge has been associated with development of high-throughput genomics and compound screening that allow development of drug which interact with above mentioned targets. 2 Identification of new anti-cancer agents is mainly based on in-vitro methods, the in vivo models are absolutely required to assess the pharmacological activity of a potential new drug in animal models. 3 * Corresponding author. E-mail address: keval.raval@rku.ac.in (K. Y. Raval). The development of a new anti-cancer agent involves several steps including in-vitro assays, both cells based and molecular target-driven, for the identification of an active compound and in-vivo studies to evaluate the potential anticancer activity; pharmacological studies to evaluate drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination; and, toxicological studies. 4 We understand that the conceptual distinction between traditional cytotoxic agents and targeted drugs is frequently incorrect and deceptive, given that the majority of cytotoxic agents do indeed have well-defined targets, such as DNA or tubulin, and that the majority of new agents are instead directed at non-cancer-specific targets, such as enzymes or factors expressed in both normal and cancer cells. Figure 1 elucidates the preclinical developmental steps for the screening of anti-cancer agents. Here we presented the theoretical information on the preclinical experimental models that are available in this work to assess either drugs with non-cancer-specific targets or those that have been utilized to establish such targets. There are number of models are available to evaluate the same and described below. https://doi.org/10.18231/j.ijcaap.2023.004 2581-5555/© 2023 Innovative Publication, All rights reserved. 27