Modeling Renal Cell Carcinoma in Mice: Bap1 and Pbrm1 Inactivation Drive Tumor Grade [Research Articles]

This study establishes Bap1 and Pbrm1 as lineage-specific drivers of ccRCC and histologic grade, implicates mTORC1 as a tumor grade rheostat, and suggests that ccRCCs arise from Bowman capsule cells.
Significance: Determinants of tumor grade and aggressiveness across cancer types are poorly understood. Using ccRCC as a model, we show that Bap1 and Pbrm1 loss drives tumor grade. Furthermore, we show that the conversion from low grade to high grade can be promoted by activation of mTORC1. Cancer Discov; 7(8); 900–17. ©2017 AACR.
See related commentary by Leung and Kim, p. 802.
This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 783

Source: Cancer Discovery - August 1, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Gu, Y.-F., Cohn, S., Christie, A., McKenzie, T., Wolff, N., Do, Q. N., Madhuranthakam, A. J., Pedrosa, I., Wang, T., Dey, A., Busslinger, M., Xie, X.-J., Hammer, R. E., McKay, R. M., Kapur, P., Brugarolas, J. Tags: Research Articles Source Type: research