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Nature Chemical Biology 4, 331–332 (1 June 2008) | doi:10.1038/nchembio0608-331

Stopping replication, at the beginning

Peter K Jackson

With the current frenzy for molecularly targeted chemotherapy, it's hard to imagine that the earliest cancer therapies used nitrogen mustards and folic acid analogs. These agents achieved their efficacy by alkylative damage of DNA or by inhibiting the synthesis of nucleotide precursors.