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Nature Medicine 10, 1298 - 1299 (2004)
doi:10.1038/nm1204-1298

Cancer drug discovery: the wisdom of imprecision

Andrei V Gudkov1

  1. The author is in the Department of Molecular Genetics, Lerner Research Institute, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. e-mail: gudkov@ccf.org


Drug discovery is either an exact business that is based on detailed knowledge of target structure or it is a fishing expedition that uncovers new drugs through screening of random compounds for their biological effect on target function. Isolation of a new p53 activator with anticancer properties strengthens the reputation of this second approach (pages 1321–1328).


Most human cancers inactivate the function of the tumor suppressor p53 during their progression. There is good reason: p53 blocks proliferation of or eliminates cells that have experienced DNA stress or have deregulated proto-oncogenes.

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