Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 341 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2368

Authors: Michael Savona & Moshe Talpaz

Tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy for chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is the consummate success story for targeted therapy, yet relapse is a nearly inevitable consequence of cessation or interruption of therapy. Primitive TKI-refractory CML stem cells are the likely source of these relapses, as they

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 377 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2371

Authors: John M. Pawelek & Ashok K. Chakraborty

The causes of metastasis remain elusive despite vast information on cancer cells. We posit that cancer cell fusion with macrophages or other migratory bone marrow-derived cells (BMDCs) provides an explanation. BMDC–tumour hybrids have been detected in numerous animal models and recently in human cancer. Molecular

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 398 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2372

Authors: Rebecca J. Lingwood, Peter Boyle, Alan Milburn, Twalib Ngoma, John Arbuthnott, Ruth McCaffrey, Stewart H. Kerr & David J. Kerr

While the world is focused on controlling the spread of diseases such as HIV and malaria in the developing world, another approaching epidemic has been largely overlooked. The World Heath Organization predicts that there will be 16 million new cancer cases per year in 2020

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 351 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2373

Authors: Cornelis J.M. Melief & Sjoerd H. van der Burg

This Review deals with recent progress in the immunotherapy of established (pre)malignant disease of viral or non-viral origin by synthetic vaccines capable of inducing robust T-cell responses. The most attractive vaccine compounds are synthetic long peptides (SLP) corresponding to the sequence of tumour viral antigens

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 361 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2374

Authors: H. Llewelyn Roderick & Simon J. Cook

Increases in cytosolic free Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) represent a ubiquitous signalling mechanism that controls a variety of cellular processes, including proliferation, metabolism and gene transcription, yet under certain conditions increases in intracellular Ca2+ are cytotoxic. Thus, in using

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 329 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2375

Authors: Klaus Pantel, Ruud H. Brakenhoff & Burkhard Brandt

Most cancer deaths are caused by haematogenous metastatic spread and subsequent growth of tumour cells at distant organs. Disseminating tumour cells present in the peripheral blood and bone marrow can now be detected and characterized at the single-cell level. These cells are highly relevant to

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 323 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2376

Author: Nicola McCarthy

Evidence that suppressing the hedgehog (Hh) signalling pathway in cancers has potential therapeutic value has led to the development of drugs that target this pathway. However, results from Tom Curran and colleagues indicate that suppressing Hh signalling in young mice results in permanent and detrimental

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 326 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2377

Author: Nicola McCarthy

Deletion of the outermost band of the short arm of chromosome 1 (1p36) is often seen in multiple tumour types, including neural crest-derived tumours, giving rise to the hypothesis that this region harbours one or more tumour suppressor genes. Susan Schlisio, Bill Kaelin and colleagues

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 327 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2378

Author: Gemma K. Alderton

REST (repressor-element-1 silencing transcription factor) is a transcriptional repressor that is associated with the maintainenance of neuron stem cell self-renewal and has been characterized as an oncogene in neuronal stem cells and, paradoxically, as a tumour suppressor in epithelial tissues. How REST accomplishes these

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 322 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2379

Author: Gemma K. Alderton

How does the oncogenic transcription factor MYC promote cell proliferation? Although MYC binds to at least 11% of promoters in the human genome and this binding contributes to (but is not always sufficient for) gene expression to promote cell growth, the mechanism and key

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 326 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2380

Author: Kim Baumann

The extent of the requirement for functional migration machinery in tumour dissemination remains unclear. In Cancer Cell, James Quigley and colleagues report that blocking the function of the tetraspanin CD151in vivo prevents tumour dissemination by inhibiting migration and access to the vasculature

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 325 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2381

Author: Ekat Kritikou

Loss of the tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) genes TSC1 and TSC2 leads to constitutive activation of the mammalian target of rapamycin complex-1 (mTORC1) and downstream signalling components, resulting in insulin resistance, the development of tumours and neurological disorders. Hotamisligil and colleagues now reveal

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 322 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2382

Author: Kristine Novak

The Achilles heel of many tumours is thought to be their 'addiction' to or dependence on specific factors and pathways, such as activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)−Akt signalling pathway in tumour cells expressing oncogenic Ras. But what is it about these factors that tumours

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 321 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2383

Author: Gemma K. Alderton

Tobacco is well-established as a carcinogen associated with lung cancer. However, epidemiological studies also suggest that a familial risk of developing lung cancer exists, pointing toward genetic predisposition in the aetiology of the disease. Three genome-wide association studies (GWASs) indicate that genetic variation might

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 324 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2384

Author: Patrick Goymer

Does the key role of the tumour microenvironment in driving tumorigenesis depend on somatic genetic alterations in the stromal cells? The evidence has been divided, but new research using high-resolution single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array technology shows that carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) display little evidence of

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 324 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2385

Author: Isobel Barry

The proteins encoded by the oncogenes KRAS and NRAS are highly homologous and have similar enzymatic functions, but mutations in KRAS are found in nearly 50% of human colon cancers, whereas only about 5% occur in NRAS. In their Nature Genetics

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 324 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2386

Author: Isobel Barry

The outlook was bleak for the Tasmanian devil until Cedric came along. Numbers have been devastated in the past 12 years by the mysterious devil facial tumour disease, which causes tumorous growths on an affected animal's face and neck that eventually make it unable to

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 322 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2387

A recent study published in the Annals of Oncology indicates a worrying trend for terminating clinical trials for efficacious new cancer drugs early, raising the possibility that important safety data might be missed.The study examined randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published between 1997 and

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 319 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2388

What are the most important factors that should be considered when treating cancer? Many would argue that the process of metastasis is one, given that metastases are the cause of death for most cancer patients. The metastatic process is complex and it appears that the

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 387 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2389

Authors: Alexandra Klaus & Walter Birchmeier

The Wnt signalling pathway is an ancient system that has been highly conserved during evolution. It has a crucial role in the embryonic development of all animal species, in the regeneration of tissues in adult organisms and in many other processes. Mutations or deregulated expression

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 404 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2395

Author: Hans Lilja, David Ulmert & Andrew J. Vickers

Nature Reviews Cancer8, 268–278 (2008)There is an error in the legend of FIG. 4 on page 275 of this article. The hk2 level in seminal fluid is given incorrectly; it should read 2–12 μg/ml.