Hot off the presses! Nov 15 Cancer Cell

The Nov 15 issue of the Cancer Cell is now up on Pubget (About Cancer Cell): if you're at a subscribing institution, just click the link in the latest link at the home page. (Note you'll only be able to get all the PDFs in the issue if your institution subscribes to Pubget.)

Latest Articles Include:

• Collaboration between PcG Proteins and MLL Fusions in Leukemogenesis: An Emerging Paradigm
  - Cancer Cell 20(5):551-553 (2011)
  PcG and TrxG proteins mostly with opposite transcriptional activities play key roles in normal and malignant development. In this issue of Cancer Cell, Tan et al. report an unexpected collaboration between CBX8 and MLL-AF9 in leukemia, revealing a far more complicated functional crosstalk between these master epigenetic regulators in oncogenesis.
• Direct Signaling between Platelets and Cancer Cells Induces an Epithelial-Mesenchymal-Like Transition and Promotes Metastasis
  - Cancer Cell 20(5):576-590 (2011)
  Interactions of cancer cells with the primary tumor microenvironment are important determinants of cancer progression toward metastasis but it is unknown whether additional prometastatic signals are provided during the intravascular transit to the site of metastasis. Here, we show that platelet-tumor cell interactions are sufficient to prime tumor cells for subsequent metastasis. Platelet-derived TGFβ and direct platelet-tumor cell contacts synergistically activate the TGFβ/Smad and NF-κB pathways in cancer cells, resulting in their transition to an invasive mesenchymal-like phenotype and enhanced metastasis in vivo. Inhibition of NF-κB signaling in cancer cells or ablation of TGFβ1 expression solely in platelets protects against lung metastasis in vivo. Thus, cancer cells rely on platelet-derived signals outside of the primary tumor for efficient metastasis.