Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 976 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2231

Authors: Natalie Meyer & Linda Z. Penn

Just over 25 years ago, MYC, the human homologue of a retroviral oncogene, was identified. Since that time, MYC research has been intense and the advances impressive. On reflection, it is astonishing how each incremental insight into MYC regulation and function has also had

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 990 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2419-c1

Authors: Maurice Tubiana & Serge Koscielny

We read with interest the paper by Michael Baumann, Mechthild Krause and Richard Hill on cancer stem cells (Exploring the role of cancer stem cells in radioresistance. Nature Rev. Cancer8, 545–554 (2008)). We would like to make two remarks.First,

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 990 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2419-c2

Authors: Michael Baumann, Mechthild Krause & Richard Hill

We would like to thank Maurice Tubiana and Serge Koscielny for their comments on our Opinion article (Exploring the role of cancer stem cells in radioresistance. Nature Rev. Cancer8, 545–554 (2008)), which raise some important issues (On clonogenic tumour

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 942 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2524

Authors: Christian Fischer, Massimiliano Mazzone, Bart Jonckx & Peter Carmeliet

Less than 5 years ago, it was still not clear whether anti-angiogenic drugs would prove successful in the clinic. After numerous patients with cancer or age-related macular degeneration have been treated with these drugs, they have now become part of the standard range of therapeutic

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 915 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2536

Author: Michael Pollak

Insulin and insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are well known as key regulators of energy metabolism and growth. There is now considerable evidence that these hormones and the signal transduction networks they regulate have important roles in neoplasia. Epidermiological, clinical and laboratory research methods are being

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 909 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2552

An analysis of tumour samples from 394 patients with colorectal cancer has suggested that activating mutations in KRAS abrogate the efficacy of the epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor cetuximab.The randomized phase III trial examined cetuximab plus best supportive care or best supportive

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 907 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2553

ApoptosisTreatment of B-RAF mutant human tumor cells with a MEK inhibitor requires Bim and is enhanced by a BH3 mimeticCragg,M. S.et al. J. Clin. Invest.23 Oct 2008 (doi: 10.1172/JCI35437)MEK–ERK inhibitors have received much attention as

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 908 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2556

Author: Safia Ali Danovi

The realization that the tumour microenvironment plays more than just a supporting role in tumour progression represented a radical shift in the study of tumour biology. Although the profound influence of the stroma on tumorigenesis is now widely accepted, a full understanding of the interactions

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 906 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2557

Author: Isobel Barry

We are all told to eat our “five a day” of fruit and vegetables, but wouldn't it be easier if the food we eat more often were even better for us? As a step in this direction, researchers have enriched a common fruit with anthocyanins

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 901 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2558

We'll end as we began, shall we? We started 2008 by publishing the first two of our articles in the Hypoxia and metabolism series, and we conclude 2008 with our final article: a Timeline on the impact of O2 availability on human cancer,

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 905 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2546

Author: Sarah Seton-Rogers

The p53 and PTEN pathways have established roles in gliomagenesis, which prompted Ron DePinho and colleagues to create mice with central nervous system (CNS)-specific deletion of the two genes. In humans, PTEN mutations are typically found in high-grade primary glioblastoma multiforme (GBM),

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 908 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2547

Author: Meera Swami

Stem cells have the potential for self-renewal and are therefore able to persist throughout life in a diverse range of tissues. However, their self-renewing capacity declines with age. What mechanisms are responsible for the differences between young and ageing stem cells? The discovery of a

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 903 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2548

Author: Nicola McCarthy

The inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) family of proteins were identified first in baculoviruses and share a varying number of baculovirus IAP repeat domains (BIRs) and in some instances a RING finger domain with E3 ubiquitin (Ub) ligase activity. Pascal Meier and colleagues have identified another

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 911 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2539

Authors: Lynne Marshall & Robert J. White

RNA polymerase III (Pol III) makes a variety of small non-coding RNAs, such as tRNA and 5S ribosomal RNA. Increased expression of pol III products is often observed in transformed cells. Much progress has been made in determining how Pol III-dependent transcription is regulated and

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 967 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2540

Authors: Jessica A. Bertout, Shetal A. Patel & M. Celeste Simon

During the past century it has been established that regions within solid tumours experience mild to severe O2 deprivation owing to aberrant vascular function. These hypoxic regions are associated with altered cellular metabolism, as well as increased resistance to radiation and chemotherapy. As

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 904 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2549

Author: Nicola McCarthy

As mistakes go, failure to ensure proper segregation of the chromosomes at mitosis is a big one. However, how tumorigenic this mistake is remains a controversial subject, even though several recent publications have shown that this can initiate tumour formation in mice. A recent publication

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 908 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2550

Author: Safia Ali Danovi

You could be forgiven for thinking that everything worth knowing about the regulation of p53 by MDM2 was already known. However, a recent paper in Molecular Cell by Moshe Oren, Michael Kastan and coworkers reveals yet another facet of this celebrity couple's

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 906 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2551

Author: Meera Swami

Melanomas are resistant to many standard therapies and often metastasize, prompting an intensive search for novel therapeutic targets. A recent study has highlighted a role for Notch signalling in melanoma development under hypoxic conditions.The Notch signalling pathway controls a range of different cellular processes

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 957 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2523

Authors: William M. Bonner, Christophe E. Redon, Jennifer S. Dickey, Asako J. Nakamura, Olga A. Sedelnikova, Stéphanie Solier & Yves Pommier

Histone H2AX phosphorylation on a serine four residues from the carboxyl terminus (producing γH2AX) is a sensitive marker for DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). DSBs may lead to cancer but, paradoxically, are also used to kill cancer cells. Using γH2AX detection to determine the extent of

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 906 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2554

Author: Sarah Seton-Rogers

One strategy that has been used in an attempt to enhance the ability of the immune system to kill tumour cells is the ex vivo introduction of tumour-specific-antigen receptors into activated T cells (ATCs), followed by their administration to patients. However, these cells have

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 904 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2555

Author: Gemma K. Alderton

Many of the regulators of the homology-directed DNA-repair pathway, homologous recombination (HR), such as BRCA2 and the RecQ helicases, WRN and BLM, are often associated with cancer owing to unproductive HR repair and genomic instability. Reporting in Cell, Simon Boulton and

Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 932 (2008). doi:10.1038/nrc2459

Author: Gillian Murphy

Over the last few years disintegrin metalloproteinases of the Adam (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase) family have been associated with the process of proteolytic 'shedding' of membrane-associated proteins and hence the rapid modulation of key cell signalling pathways in the tumour microenvironment. Furthermore, numerous members of