Progresses in medical oncology seem to be speeding up. New drugs developed these last years have been submitted to comparative trials, and many results lead us to expect improvements in the treatment of patients with solid tumors. Unquestionable in some cancer types, these progresses unfortunately sometimes remain marginal in other fields. Survival benefits are not always well established and, confronted with the exploding costs of medicine, the physician might tend to refrain from using some promising drugs. This review is summarizing results of the most important trials, while trying to present data in a context useful to the clinician.