Cancer--emerging breakthrough drugs.

Cancer may soon become the leading disease-related cause of human death in many countries of the world. In the United States, cancer is projected to surpass cardiovascular disease as the major cause of death. Nevertheless, there is good news forthcoming with respect to emerging breakthrough drugs that demonstrate our increased understanding of cancer at the molecular level, a greater focus on mechanism-based target identification, and the use of sophisticated genetic, cellular, and animal pharmacological models to more comprehensively evaluate potential cancer drugs. We anticipate that our knowledge of the human genome and the genetic basis of disease, as well as the integration of drug discovery and genomic technologies, will help us to create new treatments for diseases such as cancer that will be effective, safe, and ultimately provide cures. This column addresses the critical elements and scientific approaches that underlie the “genes to drugs” campaign to discover promising new classes of cancer therapeutics.