APL and differentiation therapy--joint international congress.

This meeting formed part of a series of bi-annual conferences, which had its beginnings in Sardinia in 1985, with the goal of promoting the concept of differentiation induction in cancer therapy. As in the past, the organizers of this meeting aimed to bring together both basic and clinical investigators to promote their interaction. Therapeutic successes of all trans-retinoic acid (ATRA), arsenic trioxide and STI-571 have proven the importance of oncogene-targeted therapies in cancer treatment, and underlie the usefulness of such interactions for effective and rational design of therapeutic approaches to combat malignant diseases. Consequently, discussions devoted to the clinical use of the above drugs, as well as to the molecular pathogeneses of the diseases in which these drugs are effective, occupied a considerable part of the congress. Although the clinical application of differentiation therapy still remains confined to acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), some interesting data have began to emerge in other cancers where agents, such as arsenic trioxide, retinoids and ligands for other nuclear receptors, are showing some promise.