Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to invite you to the 2nd ISC International Conference on Cancer Therapeutics, Molecular Therapeutics and Clinical Applications to be held in İstanbul, Turkey on November 10 - 12, 2005.

This will be the second of a series of important annual scientific meetings to be held jointly by the International Society of Chemotherapy and national chemotherapy societies in various countries. As you will remember, the first conference has already been organized in Italy in February 2004.

It is well known that cancer chemotherapy has been empirical for many years. The drugs used for that purpose are mainly DNA poisons and in that sense they are rather nonspecifical. However after the progresses acquired in molecular biology and in molecular chemistry, the last decade has seen the arrival of quite a number of new substances aiming at targets on cancer cells. We can mention the monoclonal antibodies in aiming at the surface ligands of various receptor families, the small molecules inhibiting the intracellular cascade of signal conduction, such as tyrosine kinase and ras-map kinase pathways, the exploitation of cytokines, anti-angiogenic approaches and anti-tumoral vaccines, to mention just a few.

In addition to these avant-garde acquisitions, many new drugs that have been on the market such as Platin salts, Gemcitabin, Taxanes, Etoposide, Navelbin, Irinotecan, etc. are still in research with various new combinations and new indications in clinical research. And this is still an ongoing subject of interest.
As it is easily seen, there is so much work to do either on basic science and on clinical science, that meetings like this one have an important place in investigational and educational activities.

The Conference will have symposia organized by leading scientists on the above summarized topics as well as sessions of proffered papers and posters which will bring new findings to our meeting.

As you will agree, Istanbul will be a very appropriate place for the set-up of such an international meeting.

We hope you will join us in the ISC Conference on Cancer in Istanbul.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee
Prof. Dr. Bülent Berkarda