A comprehensive understanding of cancer biology is essential for the development of more effective treatments for cancer patients. It has always been the aim of this Journal to cover all of cancer biology, from fundamental insights into how cancers form to the complex nature of the metastatic process. If the study of these processes has pinpointed new effective areas of treatment, and such treatments in patients have in turn increased our knowledge of cancer biology, then these findings have also provided much food for thought in the pages of this Journal. What we have rarely covered has been the day-to-day complexities of treating patients with cancer.

Last month Nature Publishing Group launched an additional set of Nature Reviews journals; these journals (formerly the Nature Clinical Practice journals) focus on the clinical aspects of a variety of diseases, including cancer. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology (previously Nature Clinical Practice Oncology) will cover all of the clinical aspects of cancer and is more of a 'bedside'-focused journal compared with the natural affinity for the 'bench' that is evident in Nature Reviews Cancer. Although both journals are editorially independent and have no plans to change their respective scopes, we hope that we can periodically come together to give a complete picture of the bench-to-bedside continuum. Such ventures should reflect the translational goals that cancer research funding has been trying to achieve for many years.

So, it's business as usual for Nature Reviews Cancer, where the intricacies of cancer biology and their therapeutic relevance will continue to engage our attention. And, despite the name change, it is also business as usual for Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, a clinically focused, treatment-orientated oncology reviews journal.