Cancer Discov. 2017 Apr;7(4):342-343. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-NB2017-019. Epub 2017 Feb 7.
The chromosome 18q21 deletion in nearly one third of pancreatic adenocarcinomas eliminates not only the tumor suppressor , but also neighboring genes with important cellular roles, such as This is tolerated by cancer cells only because has a functionally redundant paralog, , elsewhere in the genome. A study shows that these cells are vulnerable to silencing; this concept of collateral lethality could provide a new therapeutic strategy for a difficult-to-treat disease.
近三分之一的胰腺腺癌存在 18q21 染色体缺失，不仅使肿瘤抑制基因失活，还使具有重要细胞功能的邻近基因失活，如 。这一缺失之所以能被癌细胞容忍，仅仅是因为在基因组的其他部位存在功能冗余的同源基因 。一项研究表明，这些细胞易受 沉默的影响；这种旁系致死的概念可能为一种难以治疗的疾病提供新的治疗策略。
