The good oncogene: When bad genes identify good outcome in cancer.
Some cancer patients live many decades after diagnosis while others are not so fortunate. Understanding why this occurs is a fundamental issue in cancer research. We hypothesize that among the factors controlling favorable outcome are a class of genes that we describe as "good oncogenes". These genes have a paradoxical function in cancer in that they are prognostic markers for favorable survival but have strong transforming and tumour-promoting properties. As such, good oncogenes both promote neoplasia and constrain it. We propose that good oncogenes enhance outcome probability by allowing early tumor detection, sensitizing cancer cells to senescence or by attenuating metastatic progression and tumour self-renewal. We believe that understanding the signaling pathways regulated by good oncogenes provides mechanistic insight into the biochemical basis for long-term survival in cancer.
Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1H 8M5. jlee@uottawa.ca
Jonathan M
JM
Lee
D000818:Animals; D016922:Cellular Senescence; D058534:Class I Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D018450:Disease Progression; D015977:Eukaryotic Initiation Factor-1 / Q000378:metabolism; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008954:Models, Biological; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D009857:Oncogenes / Q000235:genetics*; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D011379:Prognosis; D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D015977:Eukaryotic Initiation Factor-1; C026022:eukaryotic peptide initiation factor-1A; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D058534:Class I Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; C484760:PIK3CA protein, human; D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit