American Association for Cancer Research 1998: promises and prospects for the next century.

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting of this year highlighted the progress made with farnesyl transferase inhibitors; two compounds have now entered Phase I clinical trials: R 115777 (Janssen) and SCH 66336 (Schering Plough) and several others are nearing clinical testing. Several new protein kinase inhibitors from Warner Lambert and Novartis were also discussed. Angiogenesis (as well as apoptosis) also featured, with many pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions having programmes in this area of cancer research. The most promising second generation compounds are angiostatin/endostatin and inhibitors of tyrosine protein kinase from the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor, including SU 5416 which is in clinical trials.