I think oncogenes continue, and will provide, the most important and critical targets for cancer treatment. Of course, there are also tumor suppressor genes that you could target. But it is much easier to inhibit aganofunction than to restore a lost function. And so I think from general principles, it follows that oncogenes will be the predominant targets in cancer therapy. The new developments that are coming up concern tumor micro-environment. Interaction of tumor cells and normal cells. But even that will have to be reduced to chemistry, and we'll have to understand it at a molecular level in order to do something. But this is-- I see this as an important development and as an important direction to go. Besides oncogenes and tumor suppressants.

Peter K. Vogt works at Scripps Research, La Jolla, California. His fundamental studies on oncogenic avian retroviruses led to the identification of oncogenes in human cells. His work also includes the discovery of MYC, the most important driver in human cancer, and he made pioneering contributions to the understanding of PI3Ks, a family of critical cancer targets.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and the American Philosophical Society. Dr. Vogt remains actively engaged in research on the biology and genetics of cancer.