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Cancer

Double trouble for tumours

Nature volume 542, pages 34–35 (2017)Cite this article

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When some cancer cells delete a tumour-suppressor gene, they also delete nearby genes. It emerges that one of these latter genes has a key metabolic role, revealing a therapeutic opportunity that might be relevant for many tumours. See Letter p.119

During cancer progression, many cancer cells delete tumour-suppressor genes that block tumour development. This deletion process often also removes some neighbouring genes. The partial or complete loss of these neighbouring genes can make cancer cells vulnerable to therapeutic targeting — a concept known as collateral lethality1. On page 119, Dey et al.2 reveal an example of collateral lethality in pancreatic cancer that exploits changes in cellular metabolism.

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Figure 1: Pancreatic cancer cells have a metabolic vulnerability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Giulia Biffi and David A. Tuveson are in the Cancer Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA.,

    Giulia Biffi & David A. Tuveson

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  1. Giulia Biffi
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  2. David A. Tuveson
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Correspondence to Giulia Biffi or David A. Tuveson.

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Biffi, G., Tuveson, D. Double trouble for tumours. Nature 542, 34–35 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature21117

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