Discoveries
'Oncogene engine' found to drive various cancers
David E. Fisher, MD, PhD
It's as though police detectives discovered that an international crime syndicate is controlled by a narrow clique of bosses. Medical researchers led by Dana-Farber's David E. Fisher, MD, PhD, have found that a common "oncogene engine" — a small family of malfunctioning cell growth switches — drives several seemingly unrelated, lethal forms of cancer, including malignant melanoma. The finding suggests it may be possible to attack these different diseases with similar therapies.
Fisher and his colleagues demonstrated that a single family of "transcription factors" — proteins that control the activity of key growth genes — behaves abnormally in malignant melanoma, as well as in two forms of soft-tissue sarcomas and a type of kidney cancer that mainly strikes children. Still other cancers sharing the same causative mechanism may yet be found, the scientists say.
"One would have never thought of grouping these tumors together," remarks Fisher, a pediatric oncologist at Dana-Farber and Children's Hospital Boston, who co-led the team with Ian J. Davis, MD, PhD, formerly of Dana-Farber and Children's. "It is now plausible that common therapeutic strategies might be applied to the entire group."
