Cytotoxicity analysis of etoposide and cisplatin on cell lines from human lung cancer and normal human lung

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) making up a large majority of all cases. Despite advancement and discoveries in cancer therapy, treatment of this disease has been less successful due to serious side effects and drug resistance. Therefore, there is a need to research into new therapeutic approaches for this disease. This study, therefore, evaluated the effect of two common cytotoxic lung cancer drugs, the etoposide and cisplatin on two lung cell lines, A549 (lung cancer cell line) and BEAS-2B (normal lung virus-transformed cell line). Our study was aimed at testing the response of normal lung and lung cancer cells to different concentrations of etoposide and cisplatin over a period of time in order to determine the cytotoxic effect of these drugs. The cells were grown in culture plates and MTT assays were performed on both cell lines in order to determine each cell line’s IC50 in response to various concentrations of cisplatin and etoposide over a maximum period of 72 hrs. Our results showed a cytotoxic effect on both cell lines. Unexpectedly, higher drug toxicity was observed on BEAS-2B compared to A549 cell lines. Consequently, this data highlights the necessity for further search of a more selective and effective drug that has minimal toxicity on the normal cells for effective treatment of NSCLC and lung cancer in general.