Development and cancer: at the crossroads of Nodal and Notch signaling.
Aggressive tumor cells express a plastic, multipotent phenotype similar to embryonic stem cells. However, the absence of major regulatory checkpoints in these tumor cells allows aberrant activation of embryonic signaling pathways, which seems to contribute to their plastic phenotype. Emerging evidence showing the molecular cross-talk between two major stem cell signaling pathways Nodal and Notch suggests a promising therapeutic strategy that could target aggressive tumor cells on the basis of their unique plasticity, and provide new insights into the mechanisms underlying the re-emergence of developmental signaling pathways during tumor progression.
Strizzi
Luigi
L
Children's Memorial Research Center, Cancer Biology and Epigenomics Program, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois 60614, USA.
Hardy
Katharine M
KM
Seftor
Elisabeth A
EA
Costa
Fabricio F
FF
Kirschmann
Dawn A
DA
Seftor
Richard E B
RE
Postovit
Lynne-Marie
LM
Hendrix
Mary J C
MJ
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D055457:Nodal Protein / Q000378:metabolism*; D051880:Receptors, Notch / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction
D055457:Nodal Protein; D051880:Receptors, Notch