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RET,a targetable driver of pancreatic adenocarcinoma |
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| Authors: | Moran Amit Shorook Na'ara Eran Fridman Euvgeni Vladovski Tanya Wasserman Neta Milman Ziv Gil |
| Affiliation: | 1. Head and Neck Surgery, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX, USA The Laboratory for Applied Cancer Research, The Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, the Head and Neck Center, Rambam Healthcare Campus, Clinical Research Institute at Rambam, Rappaport Institute of Medicine and Research, The Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel;2. The Laboratory for Applied Cancer Research, The Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, the Head and Neck Center, Rambam Healthcare Campus, Clinical Research Institute at Rambam, Rappaport Institute of Medicine and Research, The Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel;3. Department of Pathology, Rambam Healthcare Campus, The Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel;4. Department of Physiology, Biophysics and Systems Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel;5. The Laboratory for Applied Cancer Research, The Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel |
| Abstract: | Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) remains a deadly disease, affecting about 40,000 individuals in the United States annually. We aimed to characterize the role of RET as a co-driver of pancreas tumorigenesis. To assess the role of RET as a co-driver of PDA, we generated a novel triple mutant transgenic mouse based on the cre-activated p53R172H gene and a constitutively active RET M919T mutant (PRC). Survival analysis was performed using Kaplan–Meier analysis. Study of human PDA specimens and Pdx-1-Cre/KrasG12D /p53R172H (KPC) mice revealed that RET is upregulated during pancreas tumorigenesis, from inception through precursor lesions, to invasive cancer. We demonstrated that activation of RET is capable of inducing invasive pancreatic carcinomas in the background of the P53 inactivation mutation. Compared to KPC mice, PRC animals had distinct phenotypes, including longer latency to tumor progression, longer survival, and the presence of multiple macrometastases. Enhanced activation of the MAPK pathway was observed as early as the PanIN 2 stage. Sequencing of the exonic regions of KRAS in PRC-derived PDA cells revealed no evidence of KRAS mutations. RET can be an essential co-driver of pancreatic tumorigenesis in conjugation with KRAS activity. These data suggest that RET may be a potential target in the treatment of PDA. |
| Keywords: | pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma tumorigenesis GDNF RET SNP |