Removing mutant P53 improves survival rate.

• Position: Cancer Tumors - Brief article

Removing accumulated mutant p53 protein from a cancer model showed that tumors regress significantly and survival increases, relate the findings by an international team of researchers led by Ute Moll, professor of pathology at Stony Brook (N.Y.) University.

For two decades, cancer researchers have looked unsuccessfully for ways to develop compounds to restore the function of mutant p53 proteins--the most important tumor suppressor protein that protects human cells from becoming cancerous. The team discovered that eliminating the abnormally stabilized mutant p53 protein in cancer in vivo has positive therapeutic effects.

Mutations in p53 that insert incorrect amino acids can generate aberrant proteins not only with abrogated tumor suppressor function but newly gained oncogenic function (GOF) that promote malignant progression, invasion, metastasis, and chemoresistance. Importantly, mutant p53 (mutp53) proteins undergo massive accumulation specifically in tumors, which is the key requisite for GOF. Mutp53 is expressed in 40% to 50% of all human tumors and, although currently 11,000,000 patients...