Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31511426›Full record

ArticleScience translational medicine2019

Off-target toxicity is a common mechanism of action of cancer drugs undergoing clinical trials.

Ann Lin, Christopher J Giuliano, Ann Palladino, Kristen M John, Connor Abramowicz, Monet Lou Yuan, Erin L Sausville, Devon A Lukow, Luwei Liu, Alexander R Chait and 3 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Science translational medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 396 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
396citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

396 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. PROTACs in cancer therapy: targeted degradation of GPX4, PARP and epigenetic regulators.Journal of enzyme inhibition and medicinal chemistry · 2026
    Review
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Targeting CDKs in the RNAPII transcription cycle.Nature reviews. Drug discovery · 2026
    Review
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Review
  14. Article
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  18. Article
  19. Review
  20. Article

336 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors.

Ann LinCold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-4618-8120
Christopher J GiulianoCold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-0586-6095
Ann PalladinoCold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.
Kristen M JohnCold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-1200-3386
Connor AbramowiczCold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.
Monet Lou YuanCold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.
Erin L SausvilleCold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.
Devon A LukowCold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.
Luwei LiuCold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.
Alexander R ChaitCold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-6188-778X
Zachary C GalluzzoCold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-2381-2453
Clara TuckerCold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-6003-6086
Jason M SheltzerCold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA. sheltzer@cshl.edu.ORCID 0000-0003-1381-1323

Funding

Single-Cell Biology Shared ResourceP30CA045508 · NCI · COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY · PI David A Tuveson · 1987 to 2026
$118.9M
Identification and characterization of genomic features affecting survival duration in cancerDP5OD021385 · OD · COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY · PI SHELTZER, JASON · 2015 to 2020
$2.8M
NCI NIH HHS P30 CA045508NIH HHS DP5 OD021385
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Ninety-seven percent of drug-indication pairs that are tested in clinical trials in oncology never advance to receive U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. While lack of efficacy and dose-limiting toxicities are the most common causes of trial failure, the reason(s) why so many new drugs encounter these problems is not well understood. Using CRISPR-Cas9 mutagenesis, we investigated a set of cancer drugs and drug targets in various stages of clinical testing. We show that-contrary to previous reports obtained predominantly with RNA interference and small-molecule inhibitors-the proteins ostensibly targeted by these drugs are nonessential for cancer cell proliferation. Moreover, the efficacy of each drug that we tested was unaffected by the loss of its putative target, indicating that these compounds kill cells via off-target effects. By applying a genetic target-deconvolution strategy, we found that the mischaracterized anticancer agent OTS964 is actually a potent inhibitor of the cyclin-dependent kinase CDK11 and that multiple cancer types are addicted to CDK11 expression. We suggest that stringent genetic validation of the mechanism of action of cancer drugs in the preclinical setting may decrease the number of therapies tested in human patients that fail to provide any clinical benefit.

Indexed as

Clinical Trials as TopicAntineoplastic AgentsCell Line, TumorClone CellsCRISPR-Cas SystemsCyclin-Dependent KinasesDrug Resistance, NeoplasmGene Knockout TechniquesGenome, HumanHumansMolecular Targeted TherapyQuinolonesRNA InterferenceUp-RegulationAntineoplastic AgentsCDK11B protein, humanCyclin-Dependent KinasesOTS964Quinolones

Identifiers

PMID31511426
PMCPMC7717492

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.