Evaluation and Comparison of Two Novel Non-Platinum-Based Antitumor Agents on Pancreatic Cancer and Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Abstract

Cancer is one of the leading causes threatening human life. People suffering from pancreatic cancer and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) have particularly low survival rate among all cancer types. The novel non-platinum based antitumor agents, femtomedicine (FMD) compounds, were discovered as a new class of chemotherapeutic targeting agents to treat multiple cancers. Herein, two of the most effective FMD compounds (FMD-2Br-DAB & FMD-2I-DAB) were evaluated, based on their cytotoxicity against TNBC and pancreatic cancer cells through MTT assay, clonogenic assay, and caspase-3/7 green detection. According to the results obtained from these well-established cell-biology techniques, FMD compounds exhibit good antitumor effects in the cancer cell lines (PANC-1, BXPC-3, and MDA-MB-231), while having minimal impact on the normal cell line (GM05757), indicating FMD compounds can selectively kill TNBC and pancreatic cancer cells without being detrimental to normal cells. Furthermore, FMD-2I-DAB (compound C) shows a better efficiency than FMD-2Br-DAB (compound B), inferring that compound C could be more potent in tumor elimination. This study shows that the FMD compounds, especially for compound C, are potentially new drug candidates for effective treatment of the ‘hard-to-treat’ pancreatic cancer and TNBC.