APC of Cancer

Adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) is a tumour suppressor gene – its job is to help prevent cells growing uncontrollably, a potential step towards becoming cancerous. When APC is mutated or deleted in colon cells, first polyps and then, ultimately, cancer can arise. But, APC doesn't act alone to protect against cancers in normal tissue; it controls other important molecules. How they interact when one goes awry – giving rise to cancer – isn’t completely understood. Here, scientists have looked at how one of APC’s targets, beta-catenin, affects the development of cancer. They found that in the colon (pictured with different cell types stained in different colours), reducing the amount of beta-catenin diminished the unbridled growth caused by loss of APC. However, this wasn't true in ovaries, where tissue-specific differences among the APC-controlled molecules were revealed. A more detailed understanding of how different cancers develop brings the potential for more opportunities for treatment.

Written by Katie Panteli

Katie Panteli

Writer

Katie, a Warwick Biomed graduate, works for a science-publishing house in London with some of the world's most respected scientific minds. She's most interested in human biology, anything and everything that makes us tick.

• Image from work by Ying Feng and colleagues
• University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, USA
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Genetics, November 2015