Fig. 1.

Timeline showing the key milestones and laboratories in the history of Drosophila cancer research. From the initial studies of Mary Stark (first wave), through the breakthrough research of Elizabeth Gateff (second wave) and the developmental studies crucial to understanding tumour biology, and finally to the revival of the fly model for cancer studies at the beginning of the new century (third wave). The scheme includes a few groups that have made key recent contributions to the field (bottom right), as representative of the many laboratories that currently use Drosophila to address the cancer problem.