New approaches in cancer treatment

Major advances in cellular biology, genetics, pharmacology and immunology in the past decade are beginning to be translated into progress in cancer treatment. This progress is manifested by new cytotoxic drugs which have recently entered clinical practice (taxanes, topoisomerase I inhibitors, gemcitabine, vinorelbine, new purines), as well as the efficacy of monoclonal antibody therapies against the CD-20 antigen of B-cell lymphomas and the Her2/neu oncogene in breast cancer. Several new drugs in development are targeted at reversal or prevention of the multidrug resistance mechanism caused by expression of the MDR1 gene (P-glycoprotein). Tumour angiogenesis as a target is being studied in several early clinical trials. As with many other biological therapies, the evaluation of these compounds and their integration with standard therapies presents a major challenge to clinical investigators. The emerging field of genomics and gene expression micro-arrays will provide enormous information about the biology of cancers. This technology offers great opportunities for the discovery of new therapeutic targets, which should provide a basis for the design and evaluation of many new agents in the coming decade.