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Review

Nature Reviews Cancer 2, 764–776 (1 October 2002) | doi:10.1038/nrc904

c-MYC: more than just a matter of life and death

Stella Pelengaris , Mike Khan & Gerard Evan

Deregulated expression of c-MYC occurs in a broad range of human cancers and is often associated with poor prognosis, indicating a key role for this oncogene in tumour progression. However, as established human tumours often bear multiple genetic lesions, it is difficult to determine whether c-MYC is instrumental in the initiation/progression of the tumour, or indeed whether inactivating c-MYC would lead to tumour regression. Regulatable transgenic mouse models of oncogenesis have shed light on these issues and provide hope for effective cancer therapies.