Speeding up the Evaluation of New Agents in Cancer

During the last 10 years, there has been a huge increase in the understanding of many diseases, based on a revolution in the molecular sciences ( 1 , 2 ). This knowledge has inevitably fueled considerable hope in the potential to cure many serious diseases, such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, and heart disease. In cancer, for example, there has been a dramatic and unprecedented increase in the number of potential new anticancer therapies in recent years. In 2005, it was estimated that 1994 anticancer agents were in development, including 195, 389, and 122 in clinical phases 1, 2, and 3, respectively ( 3 ). Many of these agents result from advances in our understanding of cell biology, in particular, intracellular signaling pathways, growth factors and their receptors, and increased knowledge of the human genome. A substantial proportion of the agents are aimed at the same few molecular targets, such as the epidermal growth factor receptor and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor ( 4 ).