The past twenty years have seen a significant worldwide reduction in mortality from cancers, largely due to improved early detection methods and develop- ment of more effective therapies, including adjuvant therapies. However, more than fifty percent of tumors do not respond to these therapies and more than seventy percent of patients relapse after five years. These failures are largely due to cancer stem cells (CSCs), found in all...

In vitro toxicity testing is the scientific analysis of the effects of toxic chemical substances on cultured bacteria or mammalian cells. In vitro (literally 'in glass') testing methods are employed primarily to identify potentially hazardous chemicals and/or to confirm the lack of certain toxic properties in the early stages of the development of potentially useful new substances such as therapeutic drugs, agricultural chemicals and food additives.

In vitro assays for xenobiotic toxicity are recently carefully...