Cancer research provided us with many highs in 2008, but some lows were also incurred, including the deaths of I. Bernard Weinstein and M. Judah Folkman. The insights provided by such scientists will undoubtedly live on as we continue to build on their ideas and learn from their examples — inevitably, we stand on their shoulders.

As we look forward from this vantage point to 2009 there are many exciting avenues in which progress should be forthcoming. Perhaps we will improve our understanding of the greatest threat to patients with cancer: metastasis. Many advances in our understanding of the interplay between the microenvironment and tumour cells have provided us with numerous models by which metastases might occur and propagate. Similarly, our increasing comprehension of cancer cell motility is indicating further avenues for therapeutic research. To reflect the cancer research community's renewed interest in metastasis, we have compiled a specially commissioned Focus issue on Migration and metastasis that will be published early in 2009.

In addition, 2009 marks the 30 year anniversary of the discovery of the tumour suppressor p53. The wide-ranging effects of this transcription factor and its extensive relevance to cancer means that p53 has become a field unto itself, again prompting a Focus issue (to be published later in the year) that will delve into different aspects of p53 with a view to answering some of the questions that were originally posed soon after its discovery.

In the meantime, Nature Reviews Cancer will continue to support the cancer research community with the launch of our new online-only venture The Frontline, which will publish brief synopses of interesting new research papers. We are all looking forward to an exciting New Year.