Welcome

Welcome to today’s Society for Medicines Research Symposium ‘Cancer Treatments for the New Millenium’. The treatment of cancer is evolving rapidly as new molecularly targeted therapies, exemplified by drugs such as Gleevec, Herceptin and Avastin, show clear improvements over existing therapies and become increasingly used in the management of this disease. With over 700 potential medicines presently in the global oncology development pipeline there is real hope that we can make cancer a controllable, rather than a lethal disease.

This symposium gives you a snapshot of the development status of a number of new innovative treatments aiming to prevent or treat cancer. You will also hear how new technologies are being applied to the design of the next generation of cancer drugs and be reminded of the fundamental biological challenges that exist in trying to discover effective new treatments for this disease.

Dr Rob Williams, Professor Barry Potter and Dr Mark Searcey (meeting co-organisers)