Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the United States, exceeded only by heart disease. In the U.S., cancer accounts for one out of every four deaths.

Many factors contribute to our limited success in fighting cancer. Late diagnosis, often after the cancer has already spread to distant locations, is certainly a reason why many patients are incurable.

Equally problematic are the limitations of our current therapeutic armamentarium. The emergence of effective chemotherapy is one of the major medical advances in the last couple of decades. Chemotherapy can potentially offer cure in some cancers and in others, it can...