Articles in 2014

Ottini discusses what we understand about male breast cancer and what we can learn from it in terms of breast cancer pathogenesis.

The unfolded protein response (UPR) is an important pro-survival pathway that is often activated in tumour cells owing to endoplasmic reticulum stress that is caused by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Wang and Kaufman discuss the mechanisms of UPR activation in tumour cells, the importance of this pathway to cancer development and targeting strategies for therapeutic intervention.

Hartwellet al. show that the oestrogen-responsive pituitary hormone prolactin might cause some of the gender bias in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development, and therapeutic activation of prolactin signalling might reduce HCC risk.

Heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) in stromal cells promotes both reprogramming of cancer cell gene expression and activation of a transcriptional programme in stromal cells that potentiates malignancy in neighbouring tumour cells.

Disseminated tumour cells that survive treatment may become dormant and their 'awakening' may be the source of metastases. This Review discusses the mechanisms and factors that regulate tumour dormancy, including the extracellular and stromal microenvironments, autophagy and epigenetics. The authors also discuss how this information could be used therapeutically for metastatic disease.

In this Opinion article, Buchheitet al. describe the cellular changes that regulate cell viability when cells become detached from the ECM. In particular, they discuss how cancer cells take advantage of these specific processes and how better understanding them will be instrumental in designing therapeutic strategies that aim to eliminate ECM-detached metastatic cells.

Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) can promote tumour growth and metastasis through various kinase-dependent and kinase-independent pathways. This Review discusses the roles of FAK in tumour cells and cells of the microenvironment, as well as the progress that is being made in the clinical development of FAK inhibitors.

Yuet al. show that circulating tumour cells derived from patients with metastatic breast cancer can be used to track tumour evolution and can also be grown in culture to test for drug sensitivities.

Two papers have identified some of the pathways leading to important early changes in white adipose tissue that contribute to cachexia.

Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are the subject of many published papers, but the diversity of assays used for their analysis can be daunting. This Opinion article discusses issues regarding the detection and characterization of CTCs, and poses the major outstanding questions in this field.

Three recent papers have uncovered links between oncogenic KRAS signalling and the transcriptional coactivator Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1).

Two papers question the proposed role of MYC as a transcriptional amplifier.

Non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) are now appreciated to be a group of heterogeneous diseases. This Review discusses the biology of NSCLCs and what we know about their origins, diversity and the microenvironments surrounding them, with a view towards improving therapies.

Recent advances in understanding the biology of senescent cells, especially the secretory phenotypes and the role of immune cell clearance of senescent cells, has revealed more about the role of senescence induction in tumorigenesis and tumour progression. This includes the surprising findings that senescence may promote tumour growth in some contexts.