Lifting the brakes on cancer

摘要

Many cancers are thought to be driven by cancer stem cells - cancer cells that divide continuously and seed tumours. Researchers in Italy have elucidated a molecular mechanism by which one component of a key pathway linked to organ size confers cancer stem-cell properties on breast-cancer cells. Michelangelo Cordenonsi and Stefano Piccolo at the University of Padua and their team examined the Hippo pathway, which controls organ size by inhibiting cell growth and promoting cell death.