PHIP the script
How one new target could treat three tough cancers lacking common mutations
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. ...