Book excerpt: Cutting-edge investigators review the current status of the entire field, from the biology of MMPs through the current clinical studies. The authors include many leading scientists from pharmaceutical companies who present all the latest concepts and results on the preferred design strategies for MMP inhibitors, their molecular mechanisms, and their substrates. In addition, they fully describe their personal research on specific MMP inhibitors, detailing vanguard design strategies, their in vitro activity, the outcome of animal model studies and, where available, their toxicology, safety, efficacy in human clinical trials. Comprehensive and state-of-the-art, Matrix Metalloproteinase Inhibitors in Cancer Therapy offers basic and clinical investigators alike a richly informative summary of all the latest research on these powerful new drugs, and their high promise as emerging cancer therapeutics.