The Beginning of the End of Frustration

The 70th Cold Spring Harbor Symposium, entitled "Molecular Approaches to Controlling Cancer," represented a critical and exciting transition in the fields of cancer research and cancer control. After years of successful research into the molecular genetic and cellular defects that underlie the disease, anticancer agents developed on the basis of these insights are now being used regularly in the treatment of cancer patients. Based on the availability of many more experimental drugs, powerful new methods of analysis, accurate models of the disease, and novel insights into cancer-relevant pathways that affect disease initiation and progression, there is considerable reason for optimism in the ability to one day control cancer.