Keynote comment: Radiotherapy in the age of molecular oncologyRadiotherapy has been and remains a mainstay of cancer treatment. In developed countries, more than 50% of patients with cancer receive radiotherapy at some point during the course of their illness. Radiotherapy has proven to be highly effective against primary tumours, preventing the development of metastatic disease, which is usually incurable. Of those patients who survive cancer, 40% are estimated to have been cured by radiotherapy either as the only method or as a main component of treatment. Full-Text PDF Risks and benefits of chloroquine use in anticancer strategiesWe read with great interest the Case Report by Rustogi and colleagues1 that addressed the risk of skin lesions in individuals undergoing radiotherapy and chloroquine treatment. This is an important report at a time in which new uses of chloroquine are being studied and after the drug's antimalarial use was suspended in most countries because of drug resistance. Chloroquine is being used in clinical trials as an investigational antiretroviral in humans with HIV-1/AIDS2 who often develop tumours, particularly when survival has been prolonged by antiretroviral treatments. Full-Text PDF Speeding up cancer-drug developmentThe results of three phase II trials assessing the effectiveness of sorafenib (a multikinase inhibitor) in advanced myeloma, metastatic renal-cell carcinoma, and advanced hepatocellular carcinoma were published between June and September, 2006. Phase III testing of the drug is also in progress in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer. This kind of simultaneous testing for different indications aims to shorten drug-development times: the days when cancer drugs were tested for one indication after another are nearing an end. Full-Text PDF What can oncologists learn from HIV?Developments in HIV-related medicine have significant implications for the practice of oncology. Although HIV is a relatively new discipline within medicine, the identification and therapeutic targeting of HIV has been rapid. Furthermore, political lobbying has sculpted scientific research and patient care. Rational drug design has reduced morbidity and mortality to such an extent that the development of predictive surrogate endpoints has been necessary to enable randomised assessments of new protocols to continue. Full-Text PDF Keynote comment: Chemoprevention of cancer—time to catch up with the cardiologistsWe no longer wait for cardiovascular disease to develop before intervening. Blood pressure and cholesterol are monitored routinely, and interventions are made when they are high. Initially, dietary changes or an increase in physical activity are suggested. However, if high blood pressure and cholesterol persist, chemopreventive agents such as statins, angiotensin-converting inhibitors, or β-blockers are prescribed for routine use. The effectiveness of this approach is astonishing. During the past 50 years in the USA, the number of deaths from heart disease have more than halved, and deaths from cerebrovascular disease have been reduced by more than two-thirds. Full-Text PDF Comparative pharmacogenomics of antiretroviral and cytotoxic treatmentsFew genetic markers are used routinely to predict clinical effectiveness and toxic effects despite the fact that physicians and their patients are consistently confronted with this balance. Because one of the goals of pharmacogenomics is to identify individuals and target populations that might have adverse outcomes, pharmaceutical companies have been reluctant to use a strategy that might identify patients who are not eligible for a particular treatment. This view is changing because drug-discovery programmes and treatments that target specific pathways, are showing improvements in surrogate and survival endpoints. Full-Text PDF