Why carry out this study?

Neuroblastoma, although representing 8–10% of all childhood cancer cases, accounts for 15% of all cancer-related deaths in infants.

No treatment options other than chemotherapy exist for high-risk neuroblastoma, even though the 5-year survival rate is 50%.

We searched for novel therapeutic compounds using high-throughput drug screening of a small-molecule kinase inhibitor library containing 960 compounds.

What was learned from the study?

We identified a group of compounds with cytotoxic effects in six neuroblastoma cell lines.

Data from validation studies on two of the identified compounds suggest that the cytotoxic effects are attained through modulation of the PKA, PKC, ATM/ATR, AMPK, Akt and MAPK/CDK signalling pathways.