Saving the Best for Last

Deepali Sachdev, PhD, and Hua Zhang, PhD, from the University of Minnesota showed in laboratory tests that IGF1-R inhibitors can help prevent metastases from developing, but do not have a big effect on metastases once they have developed. In another series of experiments, these inhibitors were shown to reverse resistance to the hormonal therapy Faslodex. While these drugs are in very early trials for a variety of cancers, one of their uses may be to combine them with other targeted drugs or hormonal therapy—ultimately large randomized studies will be needed to prove or disprove their utility.