Potential of zebrafish for anticancer drug screening.

Background: The zebrafish is a powerful vertebrate model organism for large scale genetic and chemical screens. Objective: With the rapid development of cancer modeling in zebrafish, great opportunities exist for chemical screens to find anticancer agents. Methods: Using embryos, pathway screens can be designed based on our knowledge of cancer biology. Anticancer chemical screens using tumor bearing adult zebrafish facilitate preclinical testing. Conclusion: Current developments in improving cancer models and automated imaging technology have the potential of finding novel compounds that disrupt tumor biology.