In the past decades, target-based approaches with the aim to modulate specific diagnosis-related molecules and pathways have dominated the cancer drug discovery process and resulted in several successful novel therapies, best exemplified by the bcr–abl inhibitor imatinib for the treatment for chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) (Swinney and Anthony 2011). This evidence concerns the gene ABL1 and chronic myelogenous leukemia, BCR-ABL1 positive.