Abstract
As the signalling pathways that control cellular proliferation and death are unravelled, a range of targets have emerged as candidates for molecular cancer therapy. For their survival, cancer cells depend on a few highly activated signalling pathways; inhibition of these pathways has a strong apoptotic effect and can lead to tumour regression. But drugs that exploit this weakness, such as imatinib, have not cured patients: withdrawal of the drug leads to disease recurrence, and sustained treatment leads to the emergence of drug-resistant clones. Can cancer be cured, or will it have to be controlled as a chronic disease?
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This article was written with support from a grant from the Infrastructure Programme of the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology.
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Frank McCormick is a shareholder in ONYX Pharmaceuticals
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Klein, S., McCormick, F. & Levitzki, A. Killing time for cancer cells. Nat Rev Cancer 5, 573–580 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc1651
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc1651
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