According to the World Health Organization, cancer is responsible for 10 million deaths per year, and it is considered as the second leading cause of death in the world. New anti-cancer drugs have entered the global market in recent years, but it is still not clear if they are sufficient to cure cancer patients. On the one hand, conventional therapies have severe side effects and tumour cells become resistant. On the other hand, novel therapies have emerged, like immunotherapies, but so far, the clinical benefit is low. Panagiotis Parsonidis and Ioannis Papasotiriou at Research Genetic Cancer Centre analyse how to develop new approaches that could enhance the therapeutic efficacy.