Since 1953, with Watson and Crick discovery of DNA double helix, it begins molecular biology and genetics era. The medicine immediately enjoys the benefits deriving from the discoveries of these new scientific areas, and in the ’70s the first “proto-oncogene” was discovered, is a gene that codify for a protein that regulates cell proliferation. Between the 80s and the 90s, with the advent of PCR and of the “Human Genoma Project”, “tumour suppressor genes” are detected, and they, unlike proto-oncogenes, limit cell proliferation; besides, the first “targeted” medicines able to distinguish and hit only diseased tissues sparing healthy ones have been developed.

The publication of the complete map of human genome represents the real turning point of oncology. Molecular targeted therapies are considered the new frontier in the treatment of tumour. Compared to traditional chemotherapies, limited by the inability to act in a selective way damaging indiscriminately all high reproductive cells, targeted therapies can damage only tumour cells by recognising special receptors on their membranes. Even if new therapies act in a targeted way, they are responsible for a good number of side effects, although different from classic chemotherapies, and today clinical research is almost exclusively oriented in this direction.

The future in oncology, like any other science, is unpredictable but the past and present successes are able to create a scenario for better future perspectives for patients, and for high-risk individuals, compared to a few decades ago. Comforting results emerge from recent discoveries about immunology applied in oncology field, of “cell” therapies employing stem cells, nanotechnologies and epigenetic drugs. Although it is believed the right direction has been taken, it is still early for considering cancer a closed chapter, and a long journey of research and successes is still necessary.