CSHL study shows that malignant tumors can be shut down after all Aggressive tumors lacking p53 protein stop dead in their tracks when p53's sister protein-TAp63-steps in

摘要

Oncologists have had their hands tied because more than half of all human cancers have mutations that disable a protein called p53. As a critical anti-cancer watchdog, p53 masterminds several cancer-fighting operations within cells.When cells lose p53, tumors grow aggressively and often cannot be treated.These tumors might be tough, but they're not invincible, suggests a new study from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). The chink in the tumors' armor, according to CSHL Associate Professor Alea Mills, Ph.D., is a protein called TAp63, an older sibling of p53 that's usually intact and not mutated in most cancers.