Derivatives and Analogues of Benzaldehyde Selectively Cytotoxic to SV-40 Transformed Cells

Benzaldehyde has been proved a clinically useful anticancer drug.'`') We have undertaken a study of its mechan ism of action6) and a search for more effective compounds. A number of derivatives and analogues of benzaldehyde have been ex amined and their anticancer activity will be discussed in this paper. The inhibition of growth of SV-40 trans formed and of the parent normal cell lines is used as a selective screening test. The selec tive toxicity against transformed cells of known anticancer drugs establishes the value of this screening system.7) Four cell lines were used in our experiments : C3H 2K-C4 normal mouse kidney fibroblast W2K-11 SV-40 transformed C3H 2K-C4 3Y1-B1-6 normal rat embryo fibroblast W-3Y-23 SV-40 transformed 3Y1-B1-6