Phenotypic screening using large-scale genomic libraries to identify drug targets for the treatment of cancer

During malignant progression to overt cancer cells, normal cells accumulate multiple genetic and non-genetic changes, which result in the acquisition of various oncogenic properties, such as uncontrolled proliferation, drug resistance, invasiveness, anoikis-resistance, the ability to bypass oncogene-induced senescence and cancer stemness. To identify potential novel drug targets contributing to these malignant phenotypes, researchers have performed large-scale genomic screening using various in vitro and in vivo screening models and identified numerous promising cancer drug target genes. However, there are issues with these identified genes, such as low reproducibility between different datasets. In the present study, the recent advances in the functional screening for identification of cancer drug target genes are summarized, and current issues and future perspectives are discussed.