This invention concerns use of cyclopamine or another selective inhibitor of hedgehog/smoothened signaling in vivo on basal cell carcinomas and other tumors wherein hedgehog/smoothened signalling is utilized for inhibition of differentiation and for inhibition of apoptosis of tumor cells to achieve differentiation and apoptotic death and removal of the tumor cells while preserving normal tissue cells and functions. Causation of apoptosis is by a non-genotoxic mechanism and thus unlike in the radiation therapy and most of the currently used cancer treatments which act by causing DNA-damage.
