●Cancer's sphere of influence. Schubert, C. Nature Medicine April (2004). This short News and Views article describes how defects in two cell-death processes — apoptosis and autophagy — contribute to the formation of tumours in glandular tissues such as the breast and pancreas.

●Profile of a tumour. Kallioniemi, O. Nature 25 March (2004) Although molecular profiling has provided important mechanistic insight into cancer, can it lead to better diagnosis and treatment of cancer? This News and Views article provides some answers.

●Dangerous liaisons. Balmain, A. & Akhurst, R. J. Nature 18 March (2004) This News and Views article discusses how transforming growth factor-β regulates the stromal–epithelial interactions that promote the growth of solid tumours.

●Wip-ing out cancer. Bernards, R. Nature Genetics April (2004) The Wip phosphatase is induced in response to DNA damage by the tumour-suppressor protein p53. This News and Views article describes the function of Wip and explains why it is a suitable drug target.

●Shutting down Wnt signal-activated cancer. Taketo, M. M. Nature Genetics April (2004) This News and Views article describes how constitutive Wnt signalling can be suppressed in cancer cells.

●Development of novel targeted therapies in the treatment of malignant glioma. Rich, J. N. & Bigner, D. D. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery May (2004)

●Survival pathways meet their end. McCormick, F. Nature 18 March (2004) Tumour cells have an inbuilt instinct to survive, which is why not all tumours succumb to chemotherapy. This News and Views article describes how tumour cells can be sensitized to conventional chemo-therapies by blocking target of rapamycin (TOR).

●PINning down the c-Myc oncoprotein. Dominguez-Sola, D. & Dalla-Favera, R. Nature Cell Biology April (2004) c-Myc has a central role in regulating cell growth and the cell cycle, so it is hardly surprising that deregulation of this protein causes cancer. This News and Views article discusses the sequence of molecular events that control the stability of the c-Myc proto-oncogene.