Our finding that aplidine affected VEGF secretion in the leukaemic MOLT-4 cells, but not in 1A9 ovarian carcinoma cells, is in keeping with the recent evidence that aplidine is able to block the secretion of VEGF in some tumour cell lines but not in others (Erba et al, 2003), suggesting that the compound could exert its cytotoxic activity through different mechanisms in different tumour types. The gene discussed is VEGFA; the disease is ovarian carcinoma.