Seeking and Exploring Efficient Ways to Target Cancer

摘要

Anti-cancer treatments have never been so numerous and so efficient. As a result, the number of cancer survivors has been steadily increasing. At the same time, we are facing the challenge of a decade with increasing cancer incidence, which is expected to increase by 80% in middle and low-income countries and 40% in high-income countries from 2008 to 2030 [1]. In 2008, 7.6 million people died of cancer, and with the current trend, it is estimated that by 2030 the annual cancer death rate will reach 13 million. It is unlikely that this raise will stop there. Now is the time to focus on efforts to stop this development; obviously not only more research, but also more focused cancer research is needed to discover and develop even better anti-cancer treatments. All the “easy” drugs have been discovered and thus all innovative, “out of the mainstream” scientific ideas to target cancer should be thoroughly studied. For this, we need co-operation between cancer researchers, politicians, patients and their families, and at the same we need to retain open and curious minds to explore new ideas and to find new and better ways to revisit the old ones. To obtain optimal individual benefit, cancer treatments would need to be personalized with the most suitable drugs, drug combinations and doses, which requires more research, resulting in an increased understanding of cancer biology. This will allow us to find new therapeutic target molecules and refine our understanding of the old ones. In this issue, we show insights into some promising as well as some possible drug/treatment targets, as well as the means to target them, and address some novel and unconventional ideas and approaches.