Molecular insight in cancer treatment and prevention

This article explores the impact of new insights in the biology of cancer on the treatment and the prevention of this disease. There are two types of targeted cancer treatment, afforded by the molecular profile of cancer. One concerns the use of agents targeted on a specific component of the cancer cells (e.g., CD20 in lymphoma) or on a specific survival function of the cancer cell (growth-factor–receptor interaction; transduction cascade). The other concerns the recognition of tumors that are more or less likely to benefit from cytotoxic chemotherapy according to their genomic or proteomic profile.Cancer prevention may benefit from new molecular insight in cancer biology as these processes allow early diagnosis of cancer, identification of patients at risk for cancer, and may provide intermediate markers for chemoprevention studies.