Abstract: The disclosure provides a method of evaluating the ability of an anti-cancer drug candidate to induce apoptosis in a known cancer cell line by placing a single-cell suspension of a known cancer cell line in a well of a plate, adding at least one drug candidate to the well in an amount sufficient to achieve a target drug candidate concentration, measuring the optical density at selected time intervals for a selected duration of time, determining a kinetic units value from the optical density and time measurements, and correlating the kinetic units value with an ability of the anti-cancer drug candidate to induce apoptosis in the cancer cell line if the kinetic units value is positive. A similar method may be used to evaluate the ability of an anti-cancer drug candidate to induce apoptosis in a cancer type.