Differential killing of the patient's cancer cells versus normal cells is a necessity for chemotherapy. Advantage can be taken of close regulations of gene expression and of enzyme activity that are essential for normal cell functioning, and that are altered during tumor progression. Summarized here is our research on four such progression changes of cancer cells; some deregulate proliferation control and others decrease programmed death (apoptosis). These processes will be illustrated with examples of potential chemotherapies based on them. Methods for discovery of such changes include Differential Display and microarrays. J. Cell. Physiol. 209: 589–591, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.