title: HER2 overcomes PTEN (loss)-induced senescence to cause aggressive prostate cancer.
abstract: Prostate cancer (CaP) is the most common cancer among adult men in the Western world. Better insight into its tumor-activating pathways may facilitate the development of targeted therapies. In this study, we show that patients who develop prostate tumors with low levels of PTEN and high levels of HER2/3 have a poor prognosis. This is functionally relevant, as targeting Her2 activation to the murine prostate cooperates with Pten loss and drives CaP progression. Mechanistically, this is associated with activation of the MAPK pathway and abrogation of the Pten loss-induced cellular senescence program. Importantly, inhibition of MEK function strongly suppressed proliferation within these tumors by restoring the Pten loss-induced cellular senescence program. Taken together, these data suggest that stratification of CaP patients for HER2/3 and PTEN status could identify patients with aggressive CaP who may respond favorably to MEK inhibition.
authors.affiliation: Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Glasgow G61 1BD,  United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Imran
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.forename: Rachana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Lukram Babloo
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nixon
authors.forename: Morag
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Seywright
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Barnetson
authors.forename: Valerie G
authors.initials: VG
authors.lastname: Brunton
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Muller
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.forename: Owen J
authors.initials: OJ
authors.lastname: Sansom
authors.forename: Hing Y
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Leung
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016922:Cellular Senescence; D018734:Genes, erbB-2; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D051059:PTEN Phosphohydrolase / Q000235:genetics*; D011379:Prognosis; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D051059:PTEN Phosphohydrolase; C494929:PTEN protein, human; C487757:Pten protein, mouse