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Cancer

Deconstructing oncogenesis

Nature volume 453, pages 995–996 (2008)Cite this article

Transformation of normal cells into cancer cells entails concerted changes in the expression of many genes. Identifying which of those genes are crucial will provide insight into the mechanisms underlying malignancy.

Multiple genetic alterations pave the way for transformation of a normal cell into a cancer cell. At the core of this process are oncogenic (cancer-causing) mutations in critical genes, which lead to sustained proliferative drive and desensitization of the cell to cues that normally inhibit growth or promote cell death1. Almost exactly 25 years ago, two landmark papers2,3 published in Nature showed that a single oncogene is insufficient to make normal cells cancerous, whereas cooperation between two distinct oncogenic mutations can do the job. Writing on page 1112 of this issue4, some of the same authors now delve deeper into the genetics of oncogene cooperation and uncover many genes whose altered expression is important for malignancy. Intriguingly, in many cases 'normalizing' the expression of even one of these genes is sufficient to attenuate tumour growth.

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Figure 1: Cooperation response genes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ji Luo and Stephen J. Elledge are in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Department of Genetics, Center for Genetics and Genomics, Harvard Medical School, Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. selledge@genetics.med.harvard.edu,

    Ji Luo & Stephen J. Elledge

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  1. Ji Luo
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  2. Stephen J. Elledge
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Luo, J., Elledge, S. Deconstructing oncogenesis. Nature 453, 995–996 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/453995a

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