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Nature Medicine 14, 1315 - 1316 (2008)
doi:10.1038/nm1208-1315

Targeting RAS and PI3K in lung cancer

Julian Downward1

  1. Julian Downward is at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PX, UK.
    e-mail: downward@cancer.org.uk

The phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) and RAS oncoproteins are activated in many major tumor types and control linked signaling pathways. An inhibitor of PI3K is now shown to shrink tumors in transgenic mouse cancer models. The drug also blocks RAS-induced lung tumors when combined with an inhibitor of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (pages 1351–1356).

Two crucial interlinked growth and survival signaling pathways have received enormous attention as targets for tumor therapy. One involves PI3K and downstream targets such as the protein kinase Akt (also known as protein kinase B).

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