Dozens of such “targeted” drugs are emerging from the laboratory, rooted in decades of research and backed by unprecedented investment by pharmaceutical companies, which stand to profit from drugs that prolong life even by weeks.

But putting them to their truest test falls to a small band of doctors committed to running experimental drug trials for patients they have no other way to heal.

At a time when cancer still kills one in four Americans, it is a job that requires as much hubris as heart. To chronicle the trial of the drug known as PLX4032 is to ride a roller coaster of breakthroughs and setbacks at what many oncologists see as a watershed moment in understanding the genetic changes that cause cancer.

via Target Cancer – A Roller Coaster Chase for a Cure – Series – NYTimes.com.