Timothy Hughes has made key contributions towards the development and refinement of kinase inhibitor therapy for cancer, through his pioneering work in chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). He was a leader on many of the key clinical trials that underpinned the transformation of CML from a fatal disease to a treatable chronic disease. Hughes demonstrated and championed the key role of molecular monitoring to optimise response in CML. He pioneered the concept of treatment-free remission as a pathway to cure in CML. This has heralded an exciting new era in cancer therapy where molecularly-defined targets are identified and specifically inhibited.