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Several anticancer drugs target DNA or enzymes acting on the DNA. Because chromatin DNA is tightly compacted, accessibility to the drug target may reduce the efficiency of these anticancer drugs. We thus treated four human cancer cell lines and two normal epithelial cell lines with either trichostatin A (TSA) or SAHA, two histone deacetylase inhibitors, before exposing the cells to VP-16, ellipticine, camptothecin, doxorubicin, cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil, or cyclophosmamide. Pretreatment with TSA or SAHA increased the killing efficiency of VP-16, ellipticine, doxorubicin, and cisplatin. The magnitude of sensitization is cell type specific and is >10-fold for VP-16 in D54, a brain tumor cell line intrinsically resistant to topoisomerase II inhibitors. Topoisomerase II levels and activity were not affected by this treatment, but p53, p21, and Gadd45 protein levels were markedly induced. Moreover, pretreatment with TSA also …