BioCentury
ARTICLE | Translation in Brief

PHIP the script

How one new target could treat three tough cancers lacking common mutations

June 21, 2018 4:49 PM UTC

Cancers lacking key molecular signatures targeted by precision therapies are among the most challenging to treat, but a new study has identified a target, PHIP, for three of those difficult tumor types.

A group led by researchers at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute (CPMCRI) and the University of California San Francisco first identified a role for pleckstrin homology domain interacting protein (PHIP) in cancer in a 2012 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper that showed PHIP as a marker and potential metastasis mediator in triple-negative melanomas, which are devoid of mutations at BRAF, neuroblastoma Ras viral oncogene (NRAS) and phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN; MMAC1; TEP1). In May, the group reported in Clinical Cancer Research that PHIP copy number was predictive of melanoma metastasis and survival. ...