Battling cancer on many fronts

Abstract

The Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO)–Oncotrain Meeting on New Battlefields in Human Cancer—Attacking in Many Fronts took place between 10 and 11 March 2008, at the CNIO in Madrid, Spain, and was organized by eight graduate students and financed by Marie Curie Initiatives at the CNIO. ![][1] See Glossary for abbreviations used in this article In March 2008, around 100 young scientists met at the Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO) in Madrid, Spain, to share their results with one another and a few invited senior scientists from their fields. The workshop was organized by eight foreign students on the Oncotrain programme—supported by the VI European Framework—who are undertaking their PhDs at the CNIO in the fields of cancer research. As such, the meeting reflected the areas in which the organizers are working, namely cell cycle, cancer genetics, drug discovery and cancer stem cells (CSCs). Posters and oral presentations were grouped around these areas, with two key lectures and a few selected oral presentations per session. Cancer is ultimately a cell‐cycle disease as most tumours occur owing to one or more errors that derail the cell‐cycle machinery. Such defects can affect either components of the cell cycle itself—including checkpoint mechanisms—or elements of upstream signalling cascades, which should ultimately converge to trigger cell‐cycle events (Malumbres & Carnero, 2003). These cell‐cycle aberrations not only damage the regulation of the G1‐to‐S phase, but also alter the mitotic checkpoint, which gives rise to the chromosomal alterations observed in most human tumours. E. Nigg (Martinsried, Germany) reviewed the mitotic checkpoint and then focused our attention on his recent work with PLK1 and PLK1‐interacting checkpoint helicase (PICH). PLK1 is a crucial regulator of mitotic progression and cell division in eukaryotes. It is highly expressed in tumour cells and is considered to be a potential target for cancer therapy. … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif