The central role of mRNA translation in hallmarks of cancer has led to many distinct approaches to target regulatory components of the translation machinery.4–6 Natural products and synthetic small molecules have been identified with various mechanisms including: (i) interfering with eIF4E binding to the m7-GTP cap (for example, 4EGI-148); (ii) inhibiting MNK kinases that phosphorylate eIF4E (CGP57380;49 eFT50850); (iii) disrupting the function of eIF4A helicase (Silvestrol51 and synthetic rocaglates42,52); (iv) inhibiting translational elongation (homoharringtonine53). Here, EIF4E is linked to cancer.