Background: The zebrafish is a powerful vertebrate model organism for large scale genetic and chemical screens.
Objective: With the rapid development of cancer modeling in zebrafish, great opportunities exist for chemical screens to find anticancer agents.
Methods: Using embryos, pathway screens can be designed based on our knowledge of cancer biology. Anticancer chemical screens using tumor bearing adult zebrafish facilitate preclinical testing.
Conclusion: Current developments in improving cancer models and automated imaging technology have the potential of finding novel compounds that disrupt tumor biology.