Tumor microenvironment: becoming sick of Myc

Several years ago, we described Myc as “the oncogene from hell”, since evidence had just emerged that Myc, aside from being responsible for cell-cycle progression and tumor expansion, was also able to induce genomic instability in culture, wreaking havoc in tumor cells and accelerating tumor progres...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS 2012-03, Vol.69 (6), p.931-934
Main Authors: Whitfield, Jonathan R., Soucek, Laura
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biochemistry
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Cancer
Cell Biology
Humans
Life Sciences
Neoplasms - etiology
Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc - physiology
Review
Tumor Microenvironment
Tumors
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Summary:Several years ago, we described Myc as “the oncogene from hell”, since evidence had just emerged that Myc, aside from being responsible for cell-cycle progression and tumor expansion, was also able to induce genomic instability in culture, wreaking havoc in tumor cells and accelerating tumor progression (Soucek and Evan, Cancer Cell 1:406–408, 2002 ; Vafa et al., Mol Cell 9:1031–1044, 2002 ). In this review, we discuss recent publications that expand Myc’s evil armory to include coordination of the crosstalk between tumor and microenvironment. Indeed, endogenous Myc, acting as a client for upstream oncogenic lesions, instructs the tumor stroma, engages a complex inflammatory response and induces angiogenesis, thus allowing the tumor to thrive. This is highly topical in light of the fact that Hanahan and Weinberg have recently redefined the hallmarks of cancer and pointed out that genomic instability and inflammation are essential for both their acquisition and development (Hanahan and Weinberg, Cell 144:646–674, 2011 ). Myc, it seems, is behind it all.
ISSN:1420-682X
1420-9071
DOI:10.1007/s00018-011-0860-x