Tension and Transformation in Pancreas Cancer: Can Phenotype Break Free from the Chrysalis of Genotype?

Christopher C DuFort; Sunil R Hingorani

doi:10.1016/j.ccell.2016.05.015

Tension and Transformation in Pancreas Cancer: Can Phenotype Break Free from the Chrysalis of Genotype?

Cancer Cell. 2016 Jun 13;29(6):780-782. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2016.05.015.

Authors

Christopher C DuFort¹, Sunil R Hingorani²

Affiliations

¹ Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, USA.
² Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, USA; Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, USA; Division of Medical Oncology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. Electronic address: srh@fhcrc.org.

PMID: 27300433
DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2016.05.015

Abstract

A recent study finds that impaired TGFβ signaling can initiate a positive feedback loop between increasing ECM stiffness and epithelial cell contractility in pancreas cancer. Even more surprising is the possibility that this phenotype can liberate the epithelium from dependence on the genetic events that transformed it.

MeSH terms

Animals
Epithelial Cells / pathology*
Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition
Extracellular Matrix / metabolism*
Genotype
Humans
Pancreatic Neoplasms / genetics
Pancreatic Neoplasms / metabolism
Pancreatic Neoplasms / pathology*
Phenotype
Signal Transduction
Transforming Growth Factor beta / metabolism*

Substances

Transforming Growth Factor beta

Grants and funding

R01 CA161112/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States