In preclinical models, murine NGR–TNF showed a biphasic dose–response curve with significant anti-tumour activity even at very low doses in the nanogram range (0.005 μg kg−1) (Curnis et al, 2002), equivalent in humans to a dose of 0.2 μg m−2, which is the selected starting dose for phase I clinical development. Here, TNF is linked to neoplasm.