Molecules for the millennium: how will they look? New drug discovery year 2000

A new approach to cancer drug discovery targets molecules important in cancer pathogenesis. This approach is thought to be of greater promise than the antiproliferative screens which discovered cytotoxic agents and dominated cancer drug discovery for 60 years. However, one cannot lose sight of the fact that these targets exist in the cellular environment consisting of many additional influences on target function, and that effective drug treatment will take into account drug uptake, metabolism and elimination at the level of the cell as well as the organism. A key goal is to define for the new millennium a path to cancer drug discovery and development which accounts for the cancer cell phenotype in its totality rather than as arising solely from single molecular targets. The US National Cancer Institute maintains a cell-based drug discovery screen which can define a context for drug action in the milieu of more than 300 molecular targets and thousands of gene expression patterns which have been measured in the 60 human tumour cell lines which comprise the screening panel. The challenge of the millennium will be addressed by molecules active against defined targets but with selectivity of action occurring in the milieu of deregulated cancer cell biology in all its aspects. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.com