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Previous Volume 361:1202-1205 September 17, 2009 Number 12 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Two studies in this issue of the Journal^1,2 describe a new drug, GDC-0449, that inhibits the hedgehog signaling pathway. This pathway orchestrates numerous processes throughout embryogenesis, and although the pathway seems inactive or dispensable in most adult tissues, it becomes reactivated in a wide range of cancers.³ For this reason, blockade of the hedgehog pathway could yield a greater degree of selectivity and fewer side effects in the treatment of cancer than conventional chemotherapy. The preliminary data in these two studies raise hopes that this may indeed be the case.

In the phase 1 study by Von Hoff et al.,¹ . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

This article (10.1056/NEJMe0906092) was published on September 2, 2009, at NEJM.org.

From the Departments of Dermatology (A.A.D.) and Internal Medicine (M.T.), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

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