Grasping the Hedgehog

Abstract

Although at least five companies are developing therapeutics that block the Hedgehog signaling pathway to treat solid tumors, the inhibitor approach thus far has focused on a single target—Smoothened. Now, a trio of publications points to new places to hit the pathway and implicates Hedgehog in hematological cancers.A paper in Nature opens up a Hedgehog front in the hematological cancer space by showing its role in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).1 Meanwhile, two papers, one in Nature Chemical Biology2 and one in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,3 point to new Hedgehog targets (see Box 1, "Hedgehogomirs").