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ETS rearrangements and prostate cancer initiation

Nature volume 457, page E1 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Arising from: Tomlins et al. Nature 448, 595–599 (2007)10.1038/nature06024; Tomlins et al. reply

The first recurrent translocation event in prostate cancer has been recently described1; it results in the translocation of an ETS (E26 transformation specific) transcription factor (ERG or ETV1) to the TMPRSS2 promoter region, which contains androgen responsive elements1. The TMPRSS2:ERG genetic rearrangement has been reported to occur in approximately 40% of primary prostate tumours (ETV1 genetic rearrangements occur at a much lower frequency), and it results in the aberrant androgen-regulated expression of ERG1,2,3. Tomlins et al.4 concluded that ETS genetic rearrangements are sufficient to initiate prostate neoplasia. However, here we show that ETS genetic rearrangements may in fact represent progression events rather than initiation events in prostate tumorigenesis. To this end, we demonstrate that the prostate-specific overexpression of ERG does not initiate prostate tumorigenesis.

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Figure 1: Prostate specific overexpression of ERG does not induce high grade prostatic intra-epithelial neoplasia.

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References

  1. Tomlins, S. A. et al. Recurrent fusion of TMPRSS2 and ETS transcription factor genes in prostate cancer. Science 310, 644–648 (2005)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cancer Biology and Genetics Program, Sloan-Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, 10021, New York, USA

    Brett S. Carver, Jennifer Tran, Zhenbang Chen, Arkaitz Carracedo-Perez, Andrea Alimonti, Caterina Nardella & Pier Paolo Pandolfi

  2. Department of Pathology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, 10021, New York, USA

    Anuradha Gopalan, William Gerald & Pier Paolo Pandolfi

  3. Department of Surgery, Division of Urology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, 10021, New York, USA

    Brett S. Carver & Peter T. Scardino

  4. Department of Pathology, Columbia University, New York, 10032, New York, USA

    Carlos Cordon-Cardo

  5. Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center and Department of Medicine, Cancer Genetics Program, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 02215, Massachusetts, USA

    Zhenbang Chen, Andrea Alimonti, Caterina Nardella & Pier Paolo Pandolfi

Authors
  1. Brett S. Carver
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  2. Jennifer Tran
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  3. Zhenbang Chen
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  4. Arkaitz Carracedo-Perez
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  5. Andrea Alimonti
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  7. Anuradha Gopalan
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  10. William Gerald
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  11. Pier Paolo Pandolfi
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Carver, B., Tran, J., Chen, Z. et al. ETS rearrangements and prostate cancer initiation. Nature 457, E1 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07738

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