Finding second hits to knock out leukemia

Targeted drugs are a cornerstone of personalized medicine, yet come with important drawbacks. They restrain disease progression — but rarely eradicate the cancer. Patients therefore need to take the drugs essentially forever, exposing them to severe side effects and incurring high costs for the healthcare system. Combination therapies could potentially overcome these limitations. A new study shows how epigenetic analysis and automated microscopy help prioritize new drug combinations for leukemia therapy.