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Cell position matters in tumour development

Skin cells called melanocytes are not equally affected by the same genetic changes. Their ability to form tumours has now been linked to gene-expression programs that are selectively activated according to a cell’s anatomical position.
  1. Jean-Christophe Marine

    1. Jean-Christophe Marine is in the VIB Center for Cancer Biology and the Department of Oncology, KU Leuven, Leuven 3000, Belgium.

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  2. María S. Soengas

    1. María S. Soengas is in the Molecular Oncology Programme, Spanish National Cancer Research Center, Madrid 28029, Spain.

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The identification of the cell-of-origin that gives rise to a tumour is being pursued as a strategy to improve early cancer diagnosis and to develop preventive therapies. Characteristic features of initiating cells have a major role in determining whether a cell becomes malignant, but other factors contribute. For example, the characteristics of skin cancers (melanomas) that arise in hair-bearing skin tissue (cutaneous melanomas) are distinct from those of acral melanomas, which arise in the nails, soles of the feet and the palms. Writing in Nature, Weiss et al.1 identify a transcriptional program found at acral sites that primes pigment-producing cells called melanocytes to form tumours if they undergo specific genomic alterations. These data point to cells’ positional identities — described by the authors as the transcriptional program unique to particular anatomical sites — as being a key determinant of the ability of melanocytes to give rise to different subtypes of melanoma.

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Nature 604, 248-250 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00856-3

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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