oa Editorial

In 2011, Bentham Science Publishers will release the 7th volume of the prestigious cancer therapy review journal: “Current Cancer Therapy Reviews”. In 2011, it is an honor to take over the position of the Editor-in-Chief from Dr. Allan Lipton, Pennsylvannia State University, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, USA. Advances of cancer therapy have occured over the last decade in many fields. In every issue of “Current Cancer Therapy Reviews” manuscripts have been published which gave the reader a state-of-the-art overview in cancer research of novel translational approaches from the bench to the bedside. I like to thank the Editors and the members of the Editorial Advisory Board that - since 6 years - they have opened up an avenue of a premium scientific publication forum by establishing this journal within the scientific community. Now, it is worth pausing to put this journal in a slightly moving context. A diagnosis of cancer can be so overwhelming, and our health care system so bewildering and impersonal, that one often does not know where to turn or whom to trust. Cancer and cancer treatment is a universe in itself, has a history, a politics, a mainstream, a lunatic fringe. There are a multitude of choices and treatment decisions to be made, some are specific to cancer, others are adjunctive or palliative; some are supportive for generalized health and healing. Each has potential risks and benefits, which need to be weighed according to the specific of the disease, one's life situation and personal value - in one word, we are knocking at the door of “Personalized Medicine”. Personalized medicine is the management of health (preventive medicine/oncology) and the treatment of disease that is specific for the genetic and the epigenetic make-up of the individual, embedded into her/his pyschological and (bio-)social context. The challenges are great since there are no historical models, but the opportunities for discovery and innovation are significant (see: Personalized Cancer Medicine: Towards individualized cancer treatments. 21 - 23 February, 2011, Matrix, Biopolis, Singapore, organized by Enrico Mihich, Harvard University Medical School, USA; Edison Liu, Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore; Kurt S. Zanker, University Witten/Herdecke, Germany). The declared paradigm is the development of “personalized and tailored drugs” that precisely target the specific molecular defects of a patient's tumor together with holistic supportive care regimens; supportive care can be described as a system or complex network of state-of-the-art medical, psysochological, and social interventions delivered at various times and places with different intentions. What we urgently need are visions and views for novel cancer therapy treatment strategies, based on what has been achieved but having a mental picture on the future demands of medicine in oncology. We can not achieve this goal in the “West” neither in the “East” alone or, even in a separated manner, we need the “brains” of all scientists and clinicians in one unified world, fighting against cancer. Above all, as between 2000 and 2030, the global absolute number of cancer cases is projected by UN agencies to double, most of all in the middle- and low income countries of Africa and Asia due to the increase in population; and, in the West, due to ageing of the population and malnutrition. As incoming Editor-in-Chief, I invite all scientists and clinicians to join the fight against cancer by chosing “Current Cancer Therapy Reviews” as one of their communication platform. We all want to know what is important for clinicians Today and Tomorrow, and we to distribute new findings without any boarders. As Editor-in-Cief, and, of course all peers, we feel ourselves responsible for good science, reliable and pausible clinical data, which can be reproduced in hospitals all over the world, and, if necessary, we shall improve and up-grade by the advice of experts any peer-reviewed manuscript submitted to “Current Cancer Therapy Reviews”. Established by oncologists for oncologists, the journal challenges its readers to understand what is new, to glimpse the future and how we want to explore cancer medicine throughout the 21st century - your opinion is important!