Collectively, the results demonstrate that drug sensitivity of cancer cells identified by CELsignia precedes, and in some cases is challenging to detect after greater than 48 h of treatment, using widely employed cellular ‘point of no return’ canonical bio-correlates (e.g. loss of mitochondrial membrane integrity by TMRE, apoptosis by Annexin V, and loss of plasma membrane integrity by Sytox). Here, ANXA5 is linked to cancer.