The majority of cancers, regardless of tissue origin, are characterised by disorders in mitochondrial metabolism.46,47 In this regard, it should be emphasised that success of imatinib (Gleevec) in managing BCR-ABL leukaemia cells is dependent on their ability to target signalling pathways linked to glucose metabolism.48 Thus, we investigated whether the enhanced brivanib activity associated with reduced levels of mitochondrial enzymes, as resulting from Notch3 silencing, can occur also in other human cancer cells. The gene discussed is NOTCH3; the disease is leukemia.