New drug discovery continues to follow the time-honored paths of screening and novel target identification combined with analogue development and serendipity. The agents selected here reflect these various approaches. They include drugs already showing significant antitumor activity, eg, anthrapyrazoles, temozolomide, camptothecin analogues, and taxotere, and updated information is provided on their development. Other drugs just entering or currently in phase I trials include rhizoxin, which seems capable of overcoming multidrug resistance; the novel bioreductive agent EO9 [corrected]; and bryostatin, a highly potent protein kinase C agonist. Sequence specificity could well prove to be an important factor in the development of DNA-interactive agents, and information is provided on the progress with distamycin mustard and the new cyclopropylpyrroloindole analogues carzelesin and adozelesin.