Lessons from anticancer research might provide new insights into mechanisms of hormone action.

The extent to which specific anticancer drugs induce apoptosis in tumors frequently predicts the success of chemotherapy for a particular type of cancer. Recent results from experiments designed to evaluate drug-induced apoptosis in colon cancer cells revealed that the levels of BCL-2-related apoptotic suppressor proteins were dramatically reduced compared with those of pro-apoptotic proteins. In the case of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, this might be a consequence of inhibition of the cyclooxygenase-mediated production of prostaglandins.