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Nature 459, 508-509 (28 May 2009) | doi:10.1038/459508a; Published online 27 May 2009

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A change of strategy in the war on cancer

See associated Correspondence: André & Pasquier, Nature 460, 324 (July 2009)

Robert A. Gatenby1

  1. Robert A. Gatenby is in the departments of radiology and integrated mathematical oncology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida 33612, USA.
    Email: robert.gatenby@moffitt.org

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Patients and politicians anxiously await and increasingly demand a 'cure' for cancer. But trying to control the disease may prove a better plan than striving to cure it, says Robert A. Gatenby.

The German Nobel laureate Paul Ehrlich introduced the concept of 'magic bullets' more than 100 years ago: compounds that could be engineered to selectively target and kill tumour cells or disease-causing organisms without affecting the normal cells in the body. The success of antibiotics 50 years later seemed to be a strong validation of Ehrlich's idea.