New approaches to cancer therapies

Inactivation of the tumour suppressors p53 and p16INK4a or activating mutations in the ras oncogene are the most common genetic alterations found in human cancers. In this review, novel approaches designed to evaluate the effect of targeting intracellular molecules are described and it is shown how information derived from small synthetic peptides can stimulate novel approaches for cancer drugs. This review also gives an example of how molecular, biochemical, and cell biology studies of cancer-associated gene products can, via organic chemistry, be translated into active drugs ready for testing in clinical trials. New cancer treatments are directly springing out of studies related to tumour physiology, where the prime target is not the tumour cells but the tumour blood vessels; some of the different approaches that are being tested will be highlighted here. Finally, some of the difficulties and promises using cancer-associated genes in gene therapy are discussed.