Drugs Aim to Make Several Types of Cancer Self-Destruct

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/health/new-drugs-aim-to-make-cells-destroy-cancer.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 9:31 AM
Subject: re: Drugs Aim to Make Several Types of Cancer Self-Destruct
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     p53 is mutated or deleted in a majority of human tumors.  A therapy that could restore p53 function to--or just kill--such cells would be revolutionary.  That therapy however is still  just an aspiration.  A far smaller class of tumors are driven by MDM2 inhibition of wild-type p53.  A therapy that relieves this inhibition is an exciting prospect. But to bill that as solving "half" the p53 problem is to misrepresent a great piece of work. 

Barry Haskell Levine