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Pancreatic cancer

Targeting KRAS and the vitamin D receptor via microtubules

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 12, pages 442–444 (2015)Cite this article

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Pancreatic cancer remains a difficult-to-treat malignancy, yet nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine prolongs survival. Closer examination of the mechanism of action of nab-paclitaxel hints at a role for targeting KRAS. We discuss how nab-paclitaxel may be active in pancreatic cancer and how this informs the way forward to better treat patients with pancreatic cancer.

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Figure 1: In cancer cells critical proteins including RAS, the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and DNA repair proteins (p53, DNA-PK and 53BP1 amongst others) traffic as cargo along microtubules on motor proteins of the dynein and kinesin families.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Oncology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Building 10, Room 12N226, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, 20892, MD, USA

    Agnes Basseville, Susan Bates & Tito Fojo

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  1. Agnes Basseville
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  2. Susan Bates
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  3. Tito Fojo
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Correspondence to Tito Fojo.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Basseville, A., Bates, S. & Fojo, T. Targeting KRAS and the vitamin D receptor via microtubules. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 12, 442–444 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2015.125

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